SEAS    AND    LANDS 


Seas  and  Lands 


REPRINTED 


HY  PERMISSION  OF  THE  PROPRIETORS  OK  THE  "  DAILY  TELEGRAPH  " 

FROM   LETTERS    PUBLISHED    UNDER    THE    TITLE 

"BY  SEA   AND   LAND" 

IN  THAT  JOURNAL 


BY 


SIR   EDWIN    ARNOLD,    M.A.,   K.C.I.E.,  C.S.I. 

AUTHOR    OF  "THE    LIGHT   OF   ASIA,"   ETC.,  ETC. 


WITH  IL  L I S  TRA  TIOA  'S 


NEW  YORK 

LONGMANS,  GREEN.  A  X  D    CO. 

15    EAST   16th  STREET 
1891 


r 


A-OA 


Copyright,  1891 

BY 

SIR   EDWIN   ARNOLD 


%l>e  Carton  (press 

171,  173  Macdougal   Street,  New  \'ork 


TO   MY   DAUGHTER, 

KATHAEINE   LILIAN   ARNOLD, 

:hk   dear  companion  of  my  wanderings, 

Zbeee  pages 

ARE    DEDICATED. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. 

I.    IN   MID-OCEAN 

II.    THE   GULF    OF    ST.  LAWRENCE 

III.  MONTREAL    AND   TORONTO 

IV.  NIAGARA 
V.    AMERICAN    SOIL 

VI.    MEN    AND    CITIES 
VII.    BOSTON       . 
VIII.    HARVARD 

IX.    OCEAN    TO    OCEAN 
X.   SAN    FRANCISCO 
XI.    THE    PACIFIC       . 
XII.    JAPAN         . 

XIII.  A    JAPANESE    CITY 

XIV.  RURAL    JAPAN 
XV.    TEMPLES    AND   SHRINES 

XVI.    POETRY    AND    PLAYS 
XVII.    A    JAPANESE    DINNER 
XVIII.    THE    RANGE    OF    MODERN    1 
XIX.    SAKE    AND    TEA 

XX.    AT    HOME 
XXI.    NATURE    AND    ART       . 
XXII.    COURT    AND    COMMERCE 

XXIII.  THE    JAPANESE    HEARTH 

XXIV.  "  KWAJI  !     KWA.JI  !  "  . 
XXV.    DAILY    LIFE 

XXVI.    MILITANT    JAPAN 


LEDGE 


PACK 
I 

16 

28 

41 

59 

72 

84 

97 

1 1 1 

128 

142 

173 
186 

20? 


2  1 


229 

244 

2  5  9 
271 
29 1 

307 
320 

346 

3~?n 


Vlll 


CONTENTS. 


CHAP. 

XXVII.    JAPAN    AND    FOREIGN    POWERS 

xxvni.  japan  and  foreign  powers  {continued) 

XXIX.  A    JAPANESE    EXHIBITION 

XXX.  THE    JAPANESE    SHAMPOOER 

XXXI.  A    DAY    IN    FLOWERLAND    . 

XXXII.  A   JAPANESE   HEALTH    RESORT    . 

XXXIII.  THE    DAY    OF    THE    DEAD    IN    JAPAN 

XXXIV.  A    JAPANESE    LOVE-STORY 
XXXV.  ASCENT    OF   FUJI-SAN 

XXXVI.    IN    THE    JAPANESE   MOUNTAINS 
XXXVII.    EASTERN    FORTITUDE 
XXXVIII.    AN    AFTERNOON    WITH   THE    MIKADO 
XXXIX.    THE    FIRST    ASIATIC    PARLIAMENT 
XL.    HOMEWARD    BOUND    . 


. 

368^ 

nued) 

378 

391 

401 

.  409 

418 

428 

■  435 

.  446 

■  462 

.  47i 

■  479 

• 

•  49° 

o 

•  5°3 

LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


FL  'LL-PA  GE    ILL  USTRA  TIOXS. 


Our  Garden  at  Azabu,  Fronti 

Washington  :  The  Capitol  . 
Washington  :     The    White 

House 

University  of  Pennsylvania 
Philadelphia  :    I  n  d  e  p  en  - 

dence  Hall 
Boston  :  City  Hall 
San  Francisco 
The    Hatoba     and    Grand 

Hotel,  Yokohama  . 
Yokohama 
A  Japanese  Lady  . 
A  Maid  Servant     . 
Fuji-San  .... 
The  One  Hundred  and  One 

Steps 
The  Castle  Moat,  Tokio 
Japanese  Children 
Rice  Fields    ... 
Temples  at  Shiba  . 
TnE  Red  Bridge,  Xikko 
Dan.ttro,  the  Actor 
The  Hara-Kiri 


PAGE 

piece 

The  Samisen   .        .        .        . 

60 

At  a  Private  Dinner    . 

After  the  Banquet 

64 

The  Lotus  of  Buddhism 

72 

Bringing  Sake 

Tea  and  Tobacco    . 

74 

Tea  and  Music 

S4 

Light  Refreshment 

12S 

The  Bath-House    . 

Washing          .         .         .         . 

1 5* 

A  Temple  <  Iate 

160 

Road  to  (  )da\vaka           .    - 

163 

The  Musume  C  And  (in  her 

164 

head,"  &c.) 

1 68 

A  Japanese  Garden 

Japanese   Coolies  Wearing 

170 

Mino          .         .         .         . 

173 

A    Country    Woman:     Fuel 

176 

and  Flowers   . 

194 

A  Bamboo  Grove    . 

196 

The  Jinrikisha 

204 

Ceylon,  (  olombo    • 

220 

See/.  (  anai 

PAGE 
224 

230 
^ 
25S 
260 
266 
26S 
270 
2SO 
2S4 
308 
3IO 


4IO 

450 

402 
468 
482 
516 

5  2° 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


ILLUSTRATIONS  IN   TEXT. 


PAGE 

PAGE 

A  Geisha         . 

162 

At  the  Yoshiwara 

324 

A  Country  Girl     . 

I64 

Inn-Servants 

326 

The  Baby 

I67 

A  Japanese  Lady  . 

328 

A  Musume        . 

I69 

The  Kago        .... 

332 

The  Tokio  Cab 

182 

The  Author's  "  Han  "    . 

335 

Waiting  Maids 

234 

The  Daily  "Tub"  . 

35i 

Dancing  Girls 

236 

Invitation  to  the  Emperor's 

Coolies     .... 

274 

Evening  Party  at  Nagoya 

353 

My  Teacher  . 

276 

354 

My  Pupil 

277 

In  Winter  Dress    . 

366 

The  Sisters 

279 

Hakonp:  Lake 

423 

The  Gardener's  Wife  . 

28l 

Grave  of  Ko-Murasaki 

43i 

A  Woman  Sleeping 

283 

Invitation  to  the  Emperor's 

Dancing  Girl 

287 

Garden  Party    . 

482 

Japanese  Village 

289 

Japanese    Poem    of    Fare- 

Mat-making   . 

292 

well      INSCRIBED     TO     SlR 

Girl  of  the  Yoshiwara 

.       322 

Edwin  Arnold    . 

504 

SEAS    AND    LANDS, 


CHAPTER   I. 

IN    MID    OCEAN. 

South-westerly  squalls  and  blinding  sheets  of  rain, 
relieved  occasionally  by  gleams  of  pale,  unwilling 
sunshine,  were  troubling  the  busy  tide-way  of  the 
Mersey,  when  we  embarked,  on  Thursday,  August 
22,  at  Liverpool,  for  Quebec  and  Montreal.  Those 
who  take  this  very  interesting  route  to  the  American 
Continent  forego  the  swift  passages  made  to  New 
York  by  the  great  racing  vessels  which  fly  across  in 
little  over  six  days.  On  the  other  hand,  the  traject 
from  land  to  land  by  the  St.  Lawrence  line  occupies 
only  five  days — at  least  with  anything  like  fair 
weather — and  at  its  termination  there  is,  further,  the 
delightful  voyage  up  the  great  Canadian  river,  some 
700  or  800  miles  of  quiet  and  picturesque  navigation. 
True,  also  upon  this  Canadian  track,  should  the 
nights  be  dark,  there  is  always  some  risk  from 
icebergs  in  and  about  Belleisle  Straits,  and  a  certain 
amount  of  anxiety  must  haunt  the  captain,  if,  as  is 
generally  the  case,  fogs  cover   the   Gulf  of  the  St. 


2  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Lawrence.  But  during  the  summer  and  early  autumn 
months  the  attractions  of  the  Dominion  route  are 
pre-eminent,  and  our  good  ship  was  full  to  the  last 
berth  with  Transatlantic  tourists  returning  from  the 
Paris  Exhibition,  with  homeward-bound  Canadians, 
and  emigrants. 

On  a  fine  and  well-found  steamer  these  last- 
mentioned  people  no  longer  suffer  as  in  the  old  bad 
days  of  sailing  ships.  Yet  they  still  go  through 
so  much  misery  of  all  sorts  that  one  marvels  how 
some  among  them  ever  plucked  up  courage  for  the 
adventure.  They  come  on  board,  crowded  together 
in  the  steam  tender,  like  the  herds  of  red  and  black 
oxen  which  are  seen  crossing  from  Birkenhead  to 
Liverpool,  or  vice  versa,  in  those  capacious  cattle- 
boats  with  the  bluff  bows.  Frightened  •  women, 
tearful  children,  and  moody  men — nobody  would 
suppose  them  to  be  modern  Pilgrim  Fathers — were 
starting  to  fill  up  the  waste  fields  of  a  mighty 
empire,  and  to  make,  with  luck  and  industry,  their 
fortunes.  Nobody  cheers  them  with  music  or  any 
sign,  of  public  approval  or  encouragement.  They 
look  as  melancholy  and  uncared  for  as  the  doomed 
cattle ;  and  might  almost  be  going  to  as  tragic  a 
destiny.  In  ancient  Greece  the  intending  colonists 
marched  down  to  the  sea's  edge  with  pipes  and 
dances,  the  "  Prytanis  "  going  proudly  first  with  the 
sacred  fire  from  the  municipal  earth,  girls  bearing 
flowers  and  foliage,  and  boys  portions  of  the  paternal 
soil,  while  libations  and  offerings  were  joyously 
made  to  Deities  of  Land  and  Water.  No  painter  or 
poet  could  elicit  any  gay  Greek  colour  or  grace  of 


IN  MID    OCR  AX.  3 

hope  and  gladness  out  of  those  dejected  and  dis- 
jointed groups,  unless  it  were  from  the  Scandi- 
navian contingent,  which  seemed  cleaner,  brighter, 
and  more  composed  than  the  Irish,  Scotch,  and 
English.  These,  especially  the  Celts,  melt  into 
pathetic  hopeless  grief  when  the  hour  of  parting 
arrives ;  and  truly  it  was  a  sorrowful  time  for  many 
among  them  when,  heavily  as  the  chill  showers  fell, 
there  were  more  tears  than  rain-drops  on  their  faces. 
One  knew,  besides,  that  there  was  so  much  coming 
for  them  to  suffer  upon  the  rough  sea,  and  in  the 
unaccustomed  ship-life.  The  Mersey  was  all  grey 
and  white  with  the  wind-lashed  waves  as  the  anchor 
was  got  up  and  the  crew  hauled  in  the  gangway 
away  from  the  puffing,  snorting  steam  tender.  It 
looked,  indeed,  as  if  evil  weather  was  brewing  for 
us  all  outside  the  bar.  War  being  at  the  moment 
raging  between  Admirals  Tyron  and  Baird,  the 
Cyclops  and  Gorgon,  coast-defence  ships,  lay  in 
the  river  guarding  the  seven  wealth v  miles  of 
Liverpool  docks  from  the  arrogant  invader,  with 
the  aid  of  a  flotilla  of  torpedo-boats.  Even  these, 
however,  were  all  moored  high  up  the  fairway, 
avoiding  the  stress  of  the  wet  and  wild  south- 
westerly gale  outside.  Yet  it  proved  not  nearly  so 
bad  at  first  for  the  emigrants  as  might  have  been 
expected.  Down  to  Crosby  Eight  the  estuary  was 
sufficiently  protected,  and,  running  out  for  the  south 
end  of  the  Isle  of  Man  and  towards  the  north 
passage  between  Ballycastle  and  the  Mull  of  Cantyre, 
the  wind  softened  a  little,  and  the  great  steamer — 
too  heavv  with  coal  and  cargo  to  vield  much  to  the 


4  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

short  billows — made  no  very  formidable  movements. 
Grievous,  of  course,  was  the  havoc  which  sea-sick- 
ness, following  upon  sorrow,  wrought  even  thus  upon 
the  poor  emigrant  families.  Children  were  soon 
prostrate,  mothers  reduced  to  limp  maternal  help- 
lessness, and  fathers  sometimes  not  greatly  better. 
But  there  were  no  waves  breaking  over  the  vessel  to 
soak  them  to  the  skin — they  had  all  -good  shelter 
from  cold  and  spray  under  the  after-deck,  and  in 
the  morning  had  gained  a  little  respite  from  their 
first  hard  sea  lesson,  as  we  threaded  a  passage  under 
the  heights  of  Slieve  Slaght  and  the  basaltic  crags 
of  Dunaff  Head,  entering  Lough  Swilly  to  pick  up 
the  Londonderry  mails. 

"  Green,"  truly,  as  any  emerald,  does  Erin  appear 
to  one  who  passes  up  this  nothernmost  inlet  of  the 
island,  between  Coleraine  and  Donegal.  On  the 
western  side  of  the  lough  many  pretty  mansions 
and  villas,  all  snow  white,  deck  the  verdant  wood- 
lands and  hanging  meadows.  Inland  rise  the  Scalp 
Mountain  and  Mamore  Pass  on  the  left,  and  on  the 
right  the  Knockalla  Hills,  and,  far  off  and  massive, 
the  Glendowan  and  Derryveagh  Ranges,  overhang- 
ing Mulvoy  Bay  and  Milford,  where  Lord  Leitrim 
was  murdered.  The  anchorage  for  mail  steamers 
is  far  away  from  Londonderry,  but  Lough  Swilly, 
which  leads  thither,  naturally  calls  to  mind  the 
famous  siege  of  the  city  in  1689,  when  the  Irish 
army  of  King  James,  under  Rosen  and  Hamilton, 
beleagured  the  place  during  more  than  one  hundred 
days,  but  could  not  force  the  gallant  Protestant 
garrison  to  succumb,  although  famine  and  pestilence 


IN  MID    OCEAN.  5 

were  their  close  allies,  and  the  traitorous  Lundy,  who 
was  the  Governor  of  the  city,  attempted  to  sell  the 
gates.  That  post,  as  all  have  read,  was  taken  out 
of  his  false  hands  by  a  renowned  and  valiant  parson, 
the  Rev.  George  Walker,  Rector  of  Donaghmore, 
whose  courage  and  piety  preserved  the  faithful 
Derry.  Up  these  waters  proceeded  to  her  rescue 
those  stout  merchantmen  of  Kirke's  relieving  fleet, 
the  Phoenix  and  Mount  joy,  which,  filled  with  stores, 
broke  through  the  chains  and  booms  placed  across 
the  Foyle,  and  brought  comparative  abundance  to 
Londonderry,  and  despondency,  ending  in  despair, 
to  the  besieging  forces.  The  blockade  was  thus 
triumphantly  ended  on  July  30,  1689;  and  a  volume 
in  the  ship's  library  supplies  to  hand  the  eloquent 
passage  in  which  Macaulay  writes  of  the  famous 
siege  and  fortunate  relief.  "  Five  generations,"  says 
his  History  of  England,  "  have  passed  away,  and 
still  the  wall  of  Londonderry  is  to  the  Protestants 
of  Ulster  what  the  trophy  of  Marathon  was  to  the 
Athenians.  A  lofty  pillar,  rising  from  a  bastion 
which  bore  during  many  wTeeks  the  heaviest  lire  of 
the  enemy,  is  seen  far  up  and  down  the  Foyle.  ( )n 
the  summit  is  the  statue  of  Walker,  such  as  when, 
in  the  last  and  most  terrible  emergency,  his  elo- 
quence roused  the  fainting  courage  of  his  brethren. 
In  one  hand  he  grasps  a  Bible;  the  other  pointing 
down  the  river,  seems  to  direct  the  eyes  of  bis 
famished  audience  to  the  English  topmasts  in  the 
distant  bay.  Such  a  monument  was  well  deserved  ; 
yet  it  was  scarcely  needed;  for,  in  truth,  the  whole 
city  is  to  this  day  a  monument  of  the  great  deliver- 


6  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

ance.  The  wall  is  carefully  preserved,  nor  would 
any  plea  of  health  or  convenience  be  held  by  the 
inhabitants  sufficient  to  justfy  the  demolition  of 
that  sacred  inclosure  which,  in  the  evil  time,  gave 
shelter  to  their  race  and  their  religion." 

"  The  summit  of  the  ramparts  form  a  pleasant  walk. 
The  bastions  have  been  turned  into  little  gardens. 
Here  and  there  among  the  shrubs  and  flowers  may 
be  seen  the  old  culverins  which  scattered  bricks  cased 
with  lead  among  the  Irish  ranks.  One  antique  gun, 
the  gift  of  the  Fishmongers  of  London,  was  dis- 
tinguished during  the  105  memorable  days  by  the 
loudness  of  its  report,  and  still  bears  the  name 
of  '  Roaring  Meg.'  The  cathedral  is  filled  with 
relics  and  trophies.  In  the  vestibule  is  a  huge 
shell — one  of  many  hundreds  which  were  thrown 
into  the  city.  Over  the  altar  are  still  seen  the 
French  flagstaves  taken  by  the  garrison  in  a 
desperate  sally ;  the  white  ensigns  of  the  House 
of  Bourbon  have  long  been  dust,  but  their  place 
has  been  supplied  by  new  banners,  the  work  of' 
the  fairest  hands  of  Ulster.  The  anniversary  of 
the  day  on  which  the  gates  were  closed,  and  the 
anniversary  of  the  day  on  which  the  siege  was  raised, 
have  been  down  to  our  own  time  celebrated  by 
salutes,  processions,  banquets,  and  sermons.  Lundy 
has  been  executed  in  effigy,  and  the  sword  said  by 
tradition  to  be  that  of  Maumont  has,  on  great 
occasions,  been  carried  in  triumph."  How  is  it 
possible  that  a  race  with  such  memories  could  ever 
allow  themselves  to  be  governed  from  Dublin,  or 
to  take  laws  and  to  bear  taxation  at  the  hands  of 


IN  MID    OCEAX.  7 

the  less  industrious  and  less  educated  moiety  of  the 
Irish  community? 

The  mails  duly  arrived,  and  were  brought  along- 
side in  the  tossing  steam-tug;  the  anchor  was  got 
up  out  of  the  waters  rendered  so  illustrious  by  the 
fortitude  and  patriotism  of  Ulstermen,  and  our  good 
ship  screwed  her  way  forth  from  Lough  S  willy,  and 
rounding  Fanad  Plead,  coasted  for  awhile  along; 
by  "  Frenchman's  Rocks,"  and  the  huge  cliffs  of 
Horn  Head,  which  tower  620  feet  above  the  rest- 
less surf,  to  the  sound  running  between  Tory  Island 
and  the  promontory  which  bears  the  emphatic  title 
of  "  The  Bloody  Foreland."  The  black  rocks  of 
that  evil-named  cape,  and  the  high  white  lighthouse 
on  the  isle  which  has  christened  a  great  historical 
party,  were  the  last  landmarks  for  us  of  Ireland. 
If  it  be  forbidden  "  to  speak  disrespectfully  of  the 
Equator,"  prudence  must  combine  with  politeness 
to  repress  any  expressions  of  discontent  or  disgust 
at  an  ocean.  While  you  are  writing  you  are  its  waif 
and  stray.  Otherwise  it  would  be  a  positive  relief 
to  the  voyager  imprisoned  upon  the  dull,  discon- 
solate, and  inhospitable  surface  of  this  sub-Arctic 
sea  to  utter  but  a  small  part  of  the  personal  feelings 
with  which  its  gloomy  violence  and  hideous  lack  of 
life  and  colour  and  its  bitter  blasts  of  spiteful,  icy 
wind,  fill  his  mind.  Justly  did  Lord  Beaconsfield 
dub  it  a  "melancholy  ocean,"  and  ascribe  to  its 
dreary  continuity  most  of  the  troubles  of  tearful 
Erin. 

A  man  must  be,  indeed,  fond  to  passion  of  the 
sea  if   he   can   take    pleasure   in    passing   over   such 


8  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

a  cold,  leaden-hued,  sullen,  sleepless,  wild  and  wind- 
scourged  expanse  as  stretches,  screams,  foams,  rolls, 
and  rages  around  the. ship  where  these  far  from  un- 
measured words  are  being  written.  If  the  wet  and 
chilly  gale  does  not  blow  right  ahead,  pelting  the 
pale  waves  against  the  steamer's  stem,  so  that  her 
whole  vast  weight  of  5300  tons  comes  every  minute 
squattering  down  into  the  inky  waste,  churning  it 
into  green  and  white  sea-cream  for  furlongs,  then 
that  same  hard,  cold  wind  shifts  a  point  or  two 
northwards  or  southwards,  so  as  to  sweep  one  side 
or  the  other  of  the  deck  bare  of  shivering  and 
staggering  passengers.  The  inky  waves  dance  high 
on  either  side,  as  if  to  see  how  we  like  it,  but 
instantly  have  their  crests  lopped  off  and  torn  into 
spindrift  by  the  wind,  and  sent  in  clouds  of  thin 
salt  mist  astern.  Black  are  these  billows,  not 
"  darkly,  deeply,  beautifully  blue,"  as  the  ocean 
out  of  soundings  should  be ;  for  the  steamer  has 
now  gone  clear  of  that  long  gradual  slope  of  the 
sea  bottom  which  stretches  out  230  miles  from 
Ireland,  and  which  only  falls  six  feet  in  the  mile 
throughout  all  the  distance.  She  has,  indeed, 
logged  nearly  1000  knots  by  this  time,  and  there 
must  be  two  or  three  miles  of  salt  water  under  her 
keel,  yet  the  ugly,  wind-lashed,  weltering  North 
Atlantic  keeps  its  sad  leaden-hued  look,  vainly 
hissing  and  howling,  as  it  were,  at  the  brave  pro- 
gress of  our  stout  steamship.  Not  that  the  weather 
is  so  very  particularly  bad'  for  such  an  ocean. 
Our  excellent  captain  merely  enters  it  day  after 
day  as  "  strong  head  winds  and   heavy  sea  ".     Old 


IN  MID    OCEAN.  9 

hands  at  crossing  say  that  the  passage  is,  indeed, 
rather  a  fair  one  for  the  latter  part  of  August,  and 
the  ship  accomplishes  each  twenty-four  hours  her 
320  miles  on  an  average. 

Christopher  Columbus  would  never  have  had  the 
desire  to  traverse  a  sea  like  that  which  has  wallowed 
and  spumed  under  us  from  the  Bloody  Foreland  to 
the  present  longitude,  where  the  quartermaster  is 
dipping  the  thermometer  overboard,  to  see  if  the 
Polar  current  has  yet  been  reached.  The  ocean 
seen,  and  conquered  for  its  beauty  and  light  and 
mystery  by  the  grand  Genoese,  was  that  bright 
expanse  which  stretches  in  majesty  and  splendour 
from  the  sunny  coast  of  Cadiz ;  and  carries  the 
glory  of  the  orb  "  West  from  Numancoes  and 
Ba^ona's  hold "  to  the  lovely  Antilles  and  the 
lively  Caribbean  main.  That  was  the  vast  water 
originally  named  after  the  golden  Atlas  Range,  and 
the  graceful  Atlantides,  the  immortal  Ladies  of  the 
Wave:  not  this  mournful,  waste,  desolate,  and 
sailor-hating  wilderness  of  wild  grey  crests  and 
wandering  winds,  which  pinch  and  scourge  the 
faces  of  the  poor  emigrants,  and  freeze  the  warmest 
blood,  and  flap  spray  and  coal  smoke  into  the  eves, 
and  make  the  chairs  of  many  fair  passengers  dis- 
mally vacant  at  table,  dinner  after  dinner. 

Our  emigrants  are  particularly  touching.  The 
men,  and  some  of  the  children,  have  found  their  sea 
legs,  but  many  of  the  women  still  remain  limp  and 
listless  bundles  of  spray-soaked  gowns  and  wraps, 
cowering  into  the  corners  where  the  wind  can  perse- 
cute  them  least.     They  will  never  find  the  heart  to 


io  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

come  back  over  this  murky  waste^  until  they  have 
made  fortunes,  and  can  take  cabin  berths  like  ladies, 
aud  have  beef-tea  brought  to  them  at  all  hours  by 
attentive  stewardesses.  If  anything  like  reckless 
terms  have  been  employed  above  about  the  ugliness, 
the  cruelty,  and  the  stupid  sombre  violence  of  the 
North  Atlantic,  it  was  chiefly  because  of  the  brutal 
and  bitter  way  in  which  it  has  added  to  the  sorrows 
of  these  simple  and  honest  exiles.  They  are  of  all 
sorts  and  conditions  as  regards  place  of  origin,  and 
will  look  better,  no  doubt,  ashore,  with  their  hair  no 
longer  blown  about  like  tow,  and  their  hands  and 
faces,  which  have  been  unwashed  for  days,  restored 
to  decent  cleanliness.  The  sea  has  taken,  for  the 
moment,  all  the  coquetry  and  smartness  out  of  even 
the  Irish  lasses.  One  of  the  Swedish  maidens  has 
tied  her  white  pigtail  up  with  a  rope-yarn,  the  rude 
gale  having  stolen  her  cherry-coloured  ribbon.  A 
Belgian  matron,  too  miserable  to  be  particular,  wore 
one  stocking  blue  and  one  green  yesterday,  and  her 
children  will  evidently  not  see  soaj3  and  water  until 
the  St.  Lawrence  is  reached. 

Yet  it  was  exemplary  to  note  how  the  Methodists 
and  Moravians  among  this  suffering  and  self-banished 
crowd  picked  up  their  self-respect  and  courage,  and 
shook  off  the  depressing  demon  of  mat  de  mer  on 
Sunday  afternoon,  when  an  improvised  service  of 
hymns  and  prayer  was  held  by  some  clergymen 
upon  the  main  deck.  One  by  one,  all,  except  the 
most  dilapidated  and  forlorn,  drew  towards  the  little 
congregation,  standing  bareheaded  under  the  driving 
sea-clouds.    The  voice  of  him  who  read  the  supplica- 


IN  MID    OCEAN.  ii 

tions,  and  pronounced  a  brief  discourse  to  his  some- 
what shattered  batch  of  empire-builders,  could  hardly 
be  caught,  except  occasionally,  in  the  gusts  of  chill 
wind.  But  when  an  enthusiastic  worshipper,  with 
an  accordion,  made  his  instrument  give  forth  the 
tune  of  "Shall  we  gather  at  the  River?"  all  seemed 
to  know  it,  and  struck  in  with  a  chorus  as  sweet  as 
it  was  dauntless,  which  fairly  vanquished  the  unkind 
wind  and  uncivil  howling  billows — so  that  from  end 
to  end  of  the  great  steamship  one  could  hear  the 
voices  of  these  men  and  women — nay,  even  of  the 
children,  heaped  about  on  the  tarpaulins,  all  raising 
together  the  pious  refrain  of  hope  and  faith.  "  Yes!" 
rang  out  the  chorus,  "  we'll  gather  at  the  River — the 
Golden  River!  that  flows  by  the  Throne  of  God." 
A  gentle  lady,  leaning  upon  the  rail  overhead,  and 
watching  this  service  of  praise  performed  in  dis- 
regard of  the  elements,  dropped  kindly  tears  under 
the  stress  of  tender  and  human  thoughts  inspired 
by  the  spectacle  of  adventurous  hearts  unite*  1 
for  one  exalted  moment  in  an  ecstasy  of  belief. 
Assuredly  Sophocles  was  right  when  he  said,  "  Many 
things  are  wonderful — but  none  is  so  wonderful  as 
man." 

Coming  past  the  Bloody  Foreland  we  were  in 
danger  of  being  made  captives  of  war.  We  were 
chased  for  a  time  by  one  of  the  armed  cruisers  from 
Admiral  Baird's  fleet.  The  pursuing  vessel  had  very 
much  the  appearance  of  the  Oifj/pxo,  and  put  out  to 
catch  and  capture  us  from  behind  Tory  Island.  But 
she  was  a  long  way  to  leeward  when  she  first  sighted 
the  steamer;  which,  albeit  no  racing  liner,  can  easily 


12  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

do  her  fourteen  knots ;  so,  after  an  angry  spurt  of 
half-an-hour,  during  which  she  could  not  come 
within  cannon  range,  as  we  would  not  heave-to, 
and  as  "  a  stern  chase  is  always  a  long  chase,"  our 
enemy  put  his  helm  down  and  let  us  go  on  our 
watery  road  in  peace. 

Two  whales,  blowing  afar  off,  diversify  for  an 
hour  the  immense  monotony  of  this  heaving  black 
wilderness  of  waters,  over  which  a  chilling  and 
detestable  north-westerly  breeze  is  now  fast  turn- 
ing into  a  positive  gale.  They  are  not  quite  the 
only  visible  inhabitants  of  the  dark  sphere  on 
which  we  float,  for  every  day  we  see  playing  round 
the  ship,  and  skimming  up  and  down  the  wave- 
hollows,  companies  of  lovely  little  terns  and  sea- 
swallows,  the  latter  no  larger  than  thrushes.  These 
fearless  people  of  the  waste  have  not  by  any  means 
followed  us  from  the  land,  living,  as  gulls  often 
will,  on  the  waste  thrown  from  the  vessel.  They 
are  vague  and  casual  roamers  of  the  ocean,  who, 
spying  the  great  steamship  from  afar,  have  sailed 
close  up,  to  see  if  we  are  a  rock  or  an  island,  and 
will  then  skim  away  again  on  their  own  free  and 
boundless  business.  Yonder  tiny  bird  with  purple 
and  green  plumage,  his  little  breast  and  neck  laced 
with  silver,  is  distant  a  thousand  miles  at  this 
moment  from  a  drop  of  fresh  water,  and  yet  cares 
no  more  for  that  fact  than  did  the  Irish  squire 
who  "lived  twelve  miles  from  a  lemon."  If  his 
wings  ever  grow  weary  it  is  but  to  settle  quietly 
on  the  bosom  of  a  great  billow  and  suffer  it  for 
a    time    to    rock    and    roll    him    amid    the   hissing 


IN  MID    OCEAN.  13 

spindrift,  the  milky  flying  foam,  and  the  broken 
sea-lace,  which  forms,  and  gleams,  and  disappears 
again  upon  the  dark  slopes.  When  he  pleases,  a 
stroke  of  the  small  red  foot  and  a  heat  of  the 
wonderful  wing  launch  him  off  from  the  jagged 
edge  of  his  billow,  and  he  flits  past  us  at  100 
knots  an  hour,  laughing  steam  and  canvas  to  scorn, 
and  steering  for  some  nameless  crag  in  Labrador 
or  Fundy,  or  bound,  it  may  be,  homeward  for 
some  island  or  marsh  of  the  far-away  Irish  coast. 
Marvellously  expressive  of  power  as  is  our  untiring 
engine,  which  all  day  and  all  night  throbs  and 
pants  and  pulses  in  noisy  rhythm  under  the  deck, 
what  a  clumsy  imperfect  affair  it  is  compared  to 
the  dainty  plumes  and  delicate  muscles  which  will 
carry  that  pretty,  fearless  sea-swallow  back  to  his 
roost. 

Our  steamer  is  to  make  the  land  at  Belleisle, 
entering  the  Straits  between  Labrador  and  New- 
foundland, and,  after  passing  through  these,  will 
cross  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  thread  for  TOO 
or  800  miles  the  great  river  of  the  Dominion.  This 
land-fall  and  the  approach  by  the  Belleisle  Straits 
are  held  dangerous  by  all  navigators  because  of 
fogs  and  icebergs  which  are  constantly  encountered 
there  together.  A  vessel  of  the  line — the  Montreal 
— was  quite  lately  cast  away  on  the  rocks  of  the 
Straits,  and  our  admirable  and  very  popular  skipper, 
Captain  Lindall,  will  be  all  to-night  on  the  bridge. 
and  all  to-morrow  night  also,  conning  his  ship 
and  taking  heed  for  the  800  sleeping  folk  who 
make  her  a  small  floating  town.       Rolling  and  toss- 


i4  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

ing  on  this  gloomy,  chilly,  and  unlovely  ocean  day 
after  day,  there  must  be  few  amongst  our  company 
who  do  not  by  this  time  long  to  see  the  light 
gleaming  at  Belleisle — icebergs  or  no  icebergs.  To- 
morrow, if  the  sea-gods  favour,  we  shall  be  in  the 
Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 

But  let  it  not  be  imagined  for  a  moment  that 
the  unfriendly  gales  and  uncomfortable  rollers 
have  suppressed  the  spirit  of  making  the  best 
of  things  which  is  common  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
blood,  whether  it  flows  in  British  or  American,  or 
"  Blue-Nose  "  veins.  The  North  Atlantic  has  not 
prevented — except  very  occasionally — our  resolute 
promenading  on  the  deck,  our  concerts  in  the 
saloon,  our  games  at  quoits  and  deck  shuffle-board, 
nor  the  alternating  hymns  and  waltzes  of  the 
pilgrim  fathers,  sisters,  cousins,  aunts,  &c,  who 
throng  the  after  part  of  the  ship.  And  if  it  be 
thought  that  we  starve,  because  "  the  stormy  winds 
do  blow,"  here  is  the  dinner  menu  for  one  day 
of  the  voyage,  when  it  was  really  a  hard  north- 
easter, with  a  driving  sea,  and  the  "  fiddles  "  were 
on  every  table  : — 

August  24. — Soups — Julienne,  mutton  broth.  Fish — Cod  and 
oyster  sauce.  Entrees — Stewed  kidneys,  haricot  ox  tail,  fricassee 
rabbit.  Joints — Roast  beef  and  horse  radish,  roast  lamb  and 
mint  sauce,  roast  turkey  and  cranberry  sauce,  roast  goose  and 
apple  sauce,  boiled  mutton  and  caper  sauce,  boiled  fowl  and  pars- 
ley sauce.  Entremets — Ox  tongue  and  vegetables.  Vegetables — 
Boiled  and  baked  potatoes,  green  peas,  vegetable  marrow. 
Pastry — Sago  pudding,  apple,  plum,  and  rhubarb  pies,  rock  cakes. 
Dessert — Plums,  pears,   melons,   grapes,  oranges.     Coffee. 


IN  MID    OCR  AX.  15 

Some  apology  is,  moreover,  now  due  to  the  North 
Atlantic,  for,  as  the  brave  ship  has  drawn  nearer 
the  American  shores,  the  wild  weather  has  greatly 
relaxed,  and  the  dark  waves  have  run  in  pleasanter 
measure,  and  with  more  grace  of  colour,  under  a 
sky  not  wholly  without  patches  of  azure  and  gleam- 
ings  of  sunshine;  so  that  society  on  board  has 
largely  resumed  its  gaiety  and  content,  and  both 
forward  and  aft  we  are  all  inclined  to  forgive  the 
"  many-sounding  sea." 

In  Mid- Atlantic,  Aug.  26,  1889. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE    GULF    OF    ST.   LAWRENCE. 

"  Ice  on  the  starboard  bow ! "  The  watch  on  the 
forecastle  sang  this  out  early  in  the  day  before  our 
steamer  made  the  Belleisle  Lights,  and  many  on 
board  had  then  their  first  opportunity  of  beholding 
that  lovely  but  terrible  peril  of  the  sea — a  floating  ice- 
berg. This  particular  specimen  glimmered  on  the 
distant  surface  like  a  huge  sea-beryl,  with  a  pale- 
greenish  glow,  and  was  perhaps  as  large  as  Salisbury 
Cathedral,  with  five  or  six  times  as  much  bulk  below 
water  as  what  was  visible.  Near  to  it  floated  some 
smaller  hummocks  and  pieces  of  floe — the  avant- 
garde  of  the  frosty  flotilla  which  might  now  be 
expected  upon  our  path.  Save  for  this  danger  01 
icebergs,  and  of  the  fogs  which  too  frequently  beset 
the  entrance  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  it  is  per- 
fectly evident  to  any  competent  observer  that  this 
route  would  become  not  only  a  favourite  highway 
to  the  New  World,  but  would  formidably  and  per- 
manently threaten  the  popularity  of  the  direct  roads 
pursued  by  other  lines.  The  icebergs  are  a  great 
drawback,  and  they  are  unfortunately  most  to  be 
expected  in  those  summer  months  when  alone  the 
navigation  is  open.     The  first  heats  of  the  brief  but 


THE    GULE   OF  ST.   LAWRENCE.  17 

hot  Arctic  sunshine  set  in  rapid  motion  the  glaciers 
of  Labrador  and  Greenland. 

These  vast  storehouses  of  gathered  and  con- 
solidated snow  glide  to  the  edge  of  the  tremendous 
ice-precipices  of  the  Winter  Lands,  and,  falling 
over  them  in  monstrous  masses,  crash  into  the 
deep  water  with  shocks  which  send  thunder-peals 
through  the  still  Polar  air,  and  perturb  the  ocean 
far  and  near  with  rolling  waves.  Then,  committed 
by  so  awful  a  launch  to  the  southward-going  cur- 
rents, the  great  broken  glittering  mass  goes  solemnly 
sailing  away  in  the  unwonted  sunshine.  As  it 
floats,  the  water,  warmer  than  the  air,  melts  its 
lower  portion  gradually,  and  detached  pieces  also 
fall  from  the  visible  part,  until  equilibrium  becomes 
destroyed,  and  the  colossal  block  capsizes  with  a 
second  shock,  startling  the  ocean  for  leagues  around. 
But  a  vast  number  of  these  bergs  are  flat,  and  there 
are,  besides,  immense  detached  fields  or  floes  which 
carry  on  their  surface,  without  upsetting,  'boulders  of 
rock,  and  mud,  and  detritus,  scraped  up  by  the 
cosmic  chisels  of  the  ice,  and  these,  it  is  believed  by 
many  geologists,  have  borne  from  the  Frozen  circle, 
and  deposited  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland,  the 
vast  deposits  which  have  created  those  extensive 
shallows — the  feeding  ground  offish,  and  the  breed- 
ing place  of  mists.  The  loftier  bergs  drive  slowly 
down  inside  and  outside  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 
and  haunt  it  with  phantoms  of  destruction. 

Very  weird,  indeed,  it  is  to  catch,  in  the  rays 
of  the  stars  or  new  moon,  or  in  the  faint  twilight 
never  absent  from  the  rim  of  the  sea,   that    pallid 


1 8  SEAS  AND   LANDS- 

ghostly  glare,  as  dim  as  a  corpse-light,  which  draws 
from  the  look-out  man  this  sudden  cry  of  "  Ice  on  the 
weather  bow."  The  distant  aspect  is  as  though  a 
gleam  of  greenish  phosphorescence  shot,  afar  off, 
from  the  ocean-depths,  but  very  soon,  the  gaunt  and 
glittering  berg  displays  its  splintered  pinnacles  and 
ledges  of  snow-clad  crystals,  and  shows  its  fantastic 
shape  full  to  the  mariner.  The  clouds  take  no  such 
variety  of  forms  with  which  to  engage  the  imagina- 
tion. Sometimes  it  seems  a  sea  temple  of  sculptured 
ice  which  floats  by,  all  complete  with  dome,  and 
porch,  and  archways.  Sometimes  it  is  of  haystack 
outline,  as  if  the  spirits  of  the  Pole  had  been 
harvesting  their  glassy  crop  of  winter.  Sometimes 
you  might  swear  it  was  a  full-rigged  ship  frozen  to 
white  death,  or  a  fortress  of  the  impregnable  north, 
cut  adrift  from  the  Arctic  ramparts.  But,  met  with 
in  the  darkness,  and  not,  perhaps,  perceived  until 
the  glare  of  the  ship's  lamps  is  reflected  back  from 
its  stealthy  and  silent  onset,  what  peril  can  be  more 
deadly  ?  At  full  speed  the  fated  vessel  dashes  against 
that  brittle  but  ruinous  mass.  Her  stem  pierces  its 
outlying  layers,  only  to  be  crumpled  up  against  the 
unyielding  heart  of  the  cold  floating  mountain.  Her 
fore-part  is  all  crushed  in,  the  sea  fills  her,  and  in 
fifteen  minutes  there  will  be,  perchance,  nothing  to 
tell  of  the  great  and  gallant  vessel,  except  a  boat 
or  two  crammed  with  hopeless  castaways  and  the 
floating  riff-raff  of  the  decks  and  gear  of  the  victim 
whose  epitaph  must  be,  "  Not  since  heard  of." 

Save  for  this   contingency  of  collision  with    ice- 
bergs,   no    gateway    could   be    nobler,  no   approach 


THE    GULF   OF  ST.  LAWRENCE. 


l9 


to  the  American  Continent  more  suitable  and 
attractive  than  that  which  our  good  ship  lias 
pursued.  Passing  safely,  and  free  of  any  serious 
fog  or  ice  alarm,  through  the  narrow  inlet  of  the 
Belleisle  Straits,  the  Vancouver  steamed  swiftly  into 
the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  which  expands  immediately 
into  a  prodigious  inland  sea.  It  is  an  estuary  of 
a  river;  but  what  an  estuary,  and  what  a  stream! 
Truly  a  magnificent  preface  to  the  grand  volume 
of  geography  which  now  opens  to  the  eye  and 
mind  of  the  voyager.  Did  he  deem — oblivious  of 
his  maps — that,  once  thus  land-locked,  he  might 
consider  the  sea  section  of  his  passage  terminated? 
The  basin  of  the  great  St.  Lawrence  river  receives 
him  into  waters'  so  capacious  that  for  300  miles 
he  will  hardly  again  espy  dry  land,  and  will  not 
see  the  current  reveal  to  him  both  its  shores  until 
at  least  400  miles  have  been  traversed. 

Hour  after  hour — day,  indeed,  after  day — we  skim 
on  at  full  speed  across  the  shorter  but  still  lively 
waves  of  an  expanse  half  as  big  as  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  although  five  days  were  sufficient  to 
take  us  from  continent  to  continent,  the  seventh 
day  arrives  before  we  reach  Gaspe,  and  see  dimly 
the  coast  of  Xova  Scotia.  Further  on  lies,  ragged 
with  pines,  the  long  island  of  Antieosti,  full  of 
bears,  and  dreaded  by  skippers  for  its  dangerous 
reefs  and  shoals,  and  only  long  after  its  desolate 
uplands  have  faded  away  astern,  does  our  steamer 
come  in  sight  of  the  New  Brunswick  littoral  about 
St.  Anne  des  Moots.  We  are  now  in  the  true 
mouth  of  the   St.    Lawrence,    and   shall    coast   alonu; 


2o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

the  southern  lip,  "  keeping  the  land  in  board." 
But  the  other  lip  is  still  100  miles  distant,  and 
Rimouski  must  be  passed  and  the  Mille  Vaches 
and  Sault  au  Cochon  breasted,  before  at  last  two 
shores  are  seen  to  this  superb  and  unequalled 
channel,  and  we  can  j:>erceive  and  know  that  every 
wave  beneath  the  keel  of  the  vessel  is  mingled 
with  sweet  water  which  has  flowed  forth  from  the 
great  American  lakes,  and  dashed  in  glory  and  in 
fury  over  the  wild  and  white  chasm  of  Niagara. 

You  do  not  know  at  home — at  all  events,  you 
do  not  realise — the  magnificence  -of  this  your 
Canadian  Nile,  or  the  imperial  importance  of  that 
Dominion  of  which  it  is  the  sustaining  artery. 
We  have  now  steamed  at  full  speed  for  nearly 
three  days  up  the  never-narrowing  green  bosom  of 
the  great  St.  Lawrence,  and  are  but  just  arrived 
at  our  destination  of  Montreal,  after  nine  days  of 
voyaging.  And,  from  the  moment  when  both  banks 
of  this  splendid  waterway  aj)peared  together,  until 
our  arrival  at  the  head  of  navigation  in  this  hand- 
some city,  there  was  visible  on  either  shore  an 
almost  continuous  line  of  little  white  cottages 
and  humble,  but  evidently  prosperous  farmsteads, 
making,  as  it  were,  one  long  water-street  of  the 
river.  Wherever  these  dwellings  clustered  thickly 
a  pretty  church  would  raise  its  pointed  spire,  cased 
in  shining  tin  or  zinc  tiles,  above  the  piles  of  sawn 
planks,  the  well-filled  barns,  and  the  dark  forests 
of  spruce  and  hemlock. 

Everywhere  solid  tokens  of  well-being  and  social 
tranquillity ;  but  everywhere,  also,  to  the  observant 


THE    GULF   OF  ST.   LAWRENCE.  21 

eye,  signs  of  priestly  domination  and  postponement  of 
civil  progress  to  the  interests  of  the  Altar — for  along 
all  this  littoral,  and  far  inland,  over  the  provinces 
of  New  Brunswick  and  Quebec,  the  country  re- 
mains intensely  French  and  unchangeably  Roman 
Catholic ;  and  you  will  note  that  the  churches  and 
chapels,  the  priests'  houses  and  the  convents,  ab- 
sorb most  of  the  peasants'  money,  and  cause  the 
cottages  to  remain  of  one  insignificant  and  submis- 
sive pattern. 

The  names  of  the  towns,  villages,  and  tributary 
streams  are  all  French;  all  the  Saints  in  the  Gallic 
Calendar  seem  to  have  contributed  their  holy  appel- 
lations to  christen  Lower  Canada.  Up  to  Quebec, 
high  uplands  of  rolling  and  folded  hills,  fringed  with 
the  spiky  firs,  shut  in  the  broad  shining  channel, 
and  at  every  five  or  six  leagues  these  suddenly 
part,  and  let  down,  between  dark,  forest-clad  crags 
and  grey  cliffs  of  limestone,  streams  which  in 
smaller  countries  would  be  a  Thames,  a  Rhine,  or 
an  Ebro,  but  which  here  count  well-nigh  for  nothing, 
as  they  pour  their  unregarded  tribute  of  mountain 
water  into  this  stupendous  outlet  of  the  lake  system 
of  North  America.  Only  a  few  sails  and  boats  are 
encountered;  small  schooners  and  broad  timber 
and  cattle  craft,  propelled  by  huge  square  sails, 
occasionally  relieve  the  silence  and  comparative 
solitude  of  the  glorious  river,  and  the  crews  of 
these,  as  well  as  the  denizens  of  the  shores,  appear 
immensely  interested  in  the  passage  of  our  great 
mail  steamer,  saluting  us  with  shouts  and  waving 
kerchiefs,    and    sometimes    with    a    coup    dc    f  11*1 1. 


22  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Our  big  steamer  answers  such  homely  welcomes 
with  a  snort  or  two  upon  her  unmelodious  fog- 
whistle — which,  let  it  be  mentioned,  was  never  so 
much  as  once  sounded  on  all  the  route  across — not 
even  in  Belleisle  Straits,  where  fogs  are  almost  a 
matter  of  expectation. 

After  the  cold  and  tossing  North  Atlantic, 
imagine  how  agreeable  and  composing  is  the 
bright  tranquillity  of  this  broad  and  unruffled 
current.  The  ladies,  who  were  wrapped  a  day  or 
two  ago  in  sombre  hoods  and  ulsters,  like  grey 
and  brown  chrysalids,  have  now  emerged,  like 
brilliant  butterflies,  in  summer  toilettes.  Many  of 
them  are  returning  home  from  the  wonders  of  the 
Paris  Exhibition  and  the  delightful  fatigues  of  an 
European  tour,  and  know  every  reach  and  pro- 
montory of  the  sreat  stream.  "  There  is  the  best 
river  for  salmon !  Yonder,  at  the  '  Pig's  Jump,' 
is  the  place  for  strawberries  and  bears,  and  over 
those  hills  is  the  Cascapedia  valley  where  his  Ex- 
cellency the  Governor-General  goes  to  fish."  On 
the  northern  shore — behind  the  nearer  uplands 
clothed  with  endless  spruce,  hemlock,  sumach,  and 
birch — runs  along,  with  the  full  dignity  of  a  moun- 
tain range,  the  long  ridge  of  the  Laurentian 
rocks,  the  primitive  foundation-stuff  of  the  globe, 
which  we  shall  not  drop  from  view  until  far  above 
Montreal. 

At  the  island  of  St.  Louis  we  are  so  far  up 
the  stupendous  river  that,  though  the  tides  push 
its  current  back,  the  water  is  now  almost  or  quite 


THE    GULE   OE  ST.  LAWRENCE.  23 

fresh;  and  so,  gliding  hour  after  hour  along  the 
still  scarcely  diminished  channel — for  ever  passing 
the  little  white  houses,  the  well-stuffed  1  tarns,  the 
churches,  the  convents,  the  small  jutting  piers  with 
their  beacons,  the  tiny  red  lightships  moored  in 
midstream  to  guide  the  nocturnal  voyageur,  the 
herds  of  grazing  cattle,  the  green  patches  of 
potatoes,  rye,  barley,  and  melons,  the  lumber-yards, 
the  sawmills,  the  beaches  covered  with  canoes,  and 
the  groups  of  French-looking  residents — our  stout 
ship  steams  placidly  at  last  along  the  "  Island  of 
Orleans,"  and  comes  in  view  of  the  stately  Citadel 
of  Quebec,  with  the  ancient  French  houses  at  its 
foot,  and  the  masts  of  much  shipping.  She  snorts  a 
reverence  to  her  Majesty's  war-ship  the  Bcllerophon, 
lying  at  anchor  off  the  Point  Levi,  and  dips  her  en- 
sign, which  salute  the  handsome  man-of-war  returns, 
for  we  are  the  mail-boat,  and  of  high  importance. 
Then,  our  skilful  captain  brings  his  5000-tonner 
alongside  the  new  docks  as  softly  and  steadily  as 
if  she  were  an  eight-oar  finishing  practice,  and  we 
are  moored  stem  and  stern  under  the  "  Heights  of 
Abraham." 

Quebec,  conquered  by  the  military  genius  of 
Wolfe  in  1751),  has  remained  iinvan<|ui.-Iied  in 
regard  to  her  language  and  population.  She  is  still 
almost  as  much  France  as  St.  Malo  or  Rouen,  and 
the  first  indigene  whom  you  address  in  English  for 
guidance  will  reply,  "  jki*  mi*  purler  Amjlmxt ."  If 
you  remember,  as  a  Briton  must,  the  debt  of  Empire 
due  to  the  great    soldier  of  King   George,  you   will 


24  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

bend  earliest  steps  to  the  eminence  on  which  frowns 
the  impregnable  citadel.  Yon  will  have  in  your 
mind  those  noble  lines  of  Cowjoer — 

"  Time  was  when  it  was  praise  and  boast  enough, 
In  every  clime,  and  travel  where  we  might, 
That  we  were  born  her  children  ;  fame  enough 
To  fill  th'  ambition  of  a  common  man, 
That  Chatham's  language  was  his  mother-tongue, 
And  Wolf's  great  name  compatriot  with  his  own." 


The  ancient  city — as  a  local  authority  justly 
observes — gives  the  impression  as  though  a  frag- 
ment of  the  Old  World  had  been  transferred  to  the 
New,  and  carefully  hidden  away  in  this  remote 
corner  for  safe  keeping.  Owing  to  the  strength  of 
the  defences,  and  the  steepness  of  the  hill,  Quebec  is 
rightly  called  the  "  Gibraltar  of  America."  Whether 
seen  from  below,  or  when  ascending  the  river,  or 
from  the  railway  station  or  steamer-landing,  the 
view  of  the  town  and  citadel  is  equally  novel  and 
impressive.  Yet  how  changed  in  all  except  nature, 
since  the  wild  woods  and  towering  rocks  were  first 
visited  in  1535,  by  Jacques  Cartier,  and  the  founda- 
tion of  a  town  laid  by  Samuel  de  Champlain,  in 
1608.  This  was  on  the  site  of  the  Indian  village 
of  "  Stadicona,"  at  the  confluence  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence and  St.  Charles  rivers.  Note  as  you  climb  the 
Champlain  steps  the  old  French  names  on  the  shops, 
the  dark  eyes  and  hair  which  tell  of  French  de- 
scent, and  the  great  blocks  of  ice  which  are  being- 
deposited    from  a   cart  at  every  door,  as    the  milk 


THE    GULF   OF  ST.   LAWRENCE.  25 

is  left,  or  the  newspaper,  at  home  with  us.  The 
Canadian  summer  is  still  fervid  here,  and  the 
"  habitants "  have  caught  the  dangerous  American 
taste  for  cooled  drinks.  By  a  massive  portal  you 
enter  at  length  the  fortress,  leaving  on  one  side 
the   Parliament  House  in  Grande  Alice. 

Standing  in  any  one  of  the  river  bastions,  and 
gazing  over  the  ramparts  and  the  glacis,  your  glance 
takes  in  one  of  the  noblest  prospects  of  the  globe. 
To  the  right  the  interminable  river  sweeps  down 
from  Ontario  and  Niagara.  In  front  Point  Levi 
frames  the  picture  with  a  background  of  woodlands 
and  buildings,  and  under  your  feet  is  the  quaint  old- 
fashioned  French  town  and  the  crowded  shipping. 
All  is  as  tranquil  as  the  stream  itself;  but  to  remind 
you  of  old  scenes  of  carnage,  and  the  changed  con- 
ditions of  modern  warfare,  the  Belle rophon  at  this 
moment  fires  a  torpedo  for  practice,  blowing  some 
500  tons  of  the  St.  Lawrence  high  into  the  air,  and 
making  in  the  river  a  huge  circle  of  mud  and  dying 
fish,  which  goes  whirling  and  expanding  down  the 
current.  The  thunder  of  the  explosion  rolls  back 
from  Point  Levi  to  Cape  Diamond,  and  dies  away 
high  up  among  the  fir-woods  on  the  left,  where 
Wolfe,  after  delivering  his  feint  attack,  landed  his 
forces  at  night,  by  a  flotilla  of  boats,  and  surprised 
the  unsuspecting  Montcalm  by  appearing  suddenly 
on  the  plateau.  The  chivalrous  Frenchman,  instead 
of  confiding  in  his  stone  walls,  came  rashly  forth 
to  fight  in  the  open  for  the  possession  of  Canada. 
and  yonder  obelisk  marks  the  spot  where  Wolfe  fell 
in  the  instant  of  victory,  and  where  Montcalm  also 


26  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

received  his  death-wound.  It  is  good  to  find  the 
names  of  both  heroes  linked  together  upon  the 
memorial  here,  as  well  as  lower  down  in  the  Des 
Carrieres  Street.  The  latter  bears  a  nobly  epigram- 
matic inscription — 

MORTEM  VIRTUS  COMMTJNEM 

FAMAM  HISTORIA 

MONUMENTUM  POSTERITAS 

DEDIT 

which,  for  the  sake  of  all  patriotic  Englishwomen, 
may  be  translated — 

Their  valour  gave  a  common  fate, 

Their  worth  a  common  fame ; 
English  and  French,  we  here  inscribe 

In  common  love,  each  name. 

They  say,  as  the  surgeon  drew  the  fatal  musket 
ball  from  the  wound  of  Wolfe,  he  exclaimed,  "  Why, 
this  is  not  the  bullet  of  an  enemy ! "  and  that  the 
gallant  general  answered  with  a  faint  smile  on  his 
dying  face — gay  even  in  extremity — "  Well,  Doctor, 
I  don't  think  it  could  be  the  bullet  of  a  friend !  " 
Wolfe  has  a  proud  and  ornate  monument  in  West- 
minster Abbey — but  here  is  his  true  mausoleum,  in 
the  fair  meadows  and  forests,  the  fair  pine-clad 
ranges,  the  broad,  majestic  river,  the  peaceful, 
prosperous  Dominion,  and,  above  it  all,  the  flutter 
and  the  glitter  of  that  Union  Jack  upon  the  flagstaff 
in  the  Bastion,  which  marks  it  all  "  British  America," 
a  territory  one-fifteenth  of  the  whole  earth's  surface, 
larger  by  one-tenth  than  all  the  United  States,  and 


THE    GULF   OF  ST.    LAWRENCE.  27 

only  smaller  than  all  the  Continent  of  Europe  by 
the  area  of  Spain ;  a  gift  to  the  British  Empire 
bought  with  most  generous  blood,  and  worth  retain- 
ing, while  it  is  willing  to  be  retained,  with  all  the 
energies  and  resources  of  that  empire. 

Montreal,  Sept.  1,  1889. 


CHAPTEK   III. 

MONTREAL    AND    TORONTO. 

It  was  impressive  to  watch  the  excitement  and 
interest  of  our  emigrants  at  the  moment  of  reaching 
the  quay  at  Montreal.  This  is  their  port  of  dis- 
embarkation, and  being  Sunday  evening,  when  all 
the  population  not  in  church  and  chapel  was  dis- 
engaged, 

"  the  city  cast 
Its  people  forth  upon  us." 

We  drew  up  alongside  the  wharf,  and  in  close 
proximity  to  her  Majesty's  men-of-war  Tourmaline 
and  Pylades,  amid  a  flutter  of  welcoming  hand- 
kerchiefs and  a  forest  of  waving  hands.  Everybody 
on  board  seemed  indeed  to  have  friends  on  shore, 
except  one  humorous  and  lonely  Irishman,  who, 
vexed  to  be  "out  in  the  cold"  amidst  such  a 
genial  display  of  sentiment,  was  heard  to  say  to 
another  Hibernian,  "  Dennis,  honey,  just  go  over 
the  gangway  and  rowl  your  hat  round  and  round 
towards  me,  for  it's  mighty  quare  and  solithary 
I'm  seeming  at  this  minute ! "  Truly  it  was  an 
instant  of  natural  emotion  with  all  these  poor  people 
to  come  thus  to  their  new  home,  safe  and  sound,  but 
each    with    an    uncut    tome    of  life's    three- volume 


MONTREAL   AND    TORONTO.  29 

novel  before  him  or  her,  and  all  these  new  faces,  new- 
places,  new  scenes,  and  new  circumstances  ashore 
to  encounter.  Yet  the  glorious  "elbow-room"  of 
this  Dominion,  its  boundless  fields  and  forests,  its 
free  air  and  immense  future  capacities,  made  one 
wish  that  they  were  a  whole  army  of  East-end 
Londoners  we  were  throwing  ashore  instead  of  a 
mere  detachment.  There  is  room  here  for  all  who 
will  come  with  the  will  to  work  hard ;  but  those 
most  sure  to  succeed  are  immigrants  knowing  a 
trade,  and  possessing  a  little  capital.  There  arc 
no  poor  visible  about  the  streets  of  Montreal ;  a 
beggar  is  an  unheard-of  phenomenon — crackers  and 
pork,  eggs  and  melons,  fish  and  meal  are  too  cheap 
for  hunger  to  be  ever  felt  by  anybody  with  a  pair 
of  hands.  Especially  good  and  pleasant  it  was  to 
see  Lady  Stanley  of  Preston  on  the  wharf  looking 
after  the  welfare  of  the  newcomers  to  her  husband's 
Viceroyalty. 

Another  people  besides  beggars  of  whom  you 
see  nothing  in  and  about  the  stately  and  vigorous 
city  of  Montreal  are  those  Red  Indians  to  whom 
the  land  originally  belonged.  A  little  village  near 
the  "Royal  Mount"  harbours,  indeed,  a  remnant  of 
half-breeds,  a  feeble  folk,  living  by  the  sale  of  bead- 
work  and  models  of  bark  canoes,  representative,  in 
a  melancholy,  flickering  manner,  of  the  Algonquin* 
and  Hurons  and  such  like,  who  were  the  landed 
proprietors  hereabouts  when  the  Kings  of  France 
first  cast  eyes  of  desire  upon  the  region.  How  far 
away  in  date,  and  farther  still  in  events,  that 
historic   act   when,   on   March   7,   1004,   two    vessels 


3o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

set  sail  from  the  Old  World  bearing  Pierre  de 
Gast,  the  well-beloved  friend  of  King  Henry  IV.  of 
France,  who  had  by  royal  patent  the  previous  year 
granted  to  the  Sieur  Des  Monts  all  the  American 
territory  between  the  fortieth  and  forty-sixth  de- 
grees of  north  latitude,  with  the  royal  authority 
to  colonise  and  govern  it  according  to  his  own 
judgment !  With  the  expedition  came  Samuel 
Champlain,  pilot,  one  of  the  earliest  discoverers 
of  the  country. 

After  an  ocean  voyage  of  two  months  the  fleet 
landed  on  the  southerly  side  of  the  peninsula  of 
Nova  Scotia.  From  this  point  they  sailed  along  the 
shore  of  Nova  Scotia,  explored  the  Bay  of  Fundy, 
and  thence  proceeded  to  the  waters  of  Passama- 
quoddy,  which  Des  Monts  and  his  men  called  a 
"  sea  of  salt  water."  This  was  the  first  expedition 
to  these  waters.  Passing  through  the  outer  fringe 
of  islands,  the  ships  crossed  the  bay,  and  ascended 
the  Schoodic  (St.  Croix)  River,  near  the  present  town 
of  St.  Andrews.  In  the  same  quiet  and  almost 
furtive  style  arrived  the  other  pioneers — earlier  and 
later — the  Cabots  and  Cartiers,  and  the  rest ;  laying 
hold  gradually  of  this  magnificent  region,  as  the 
"white  man's  foot,"  a  plant  which  you  see  in  the 
Canadian  clearings,  has  stolen  into  the  flora  of  the 
woods  and  thrust  the  Indian  grasses  aside.  Yet 
none  of  these  original  colonists  could  have  imagined, 
even  in  their  wildest  dreams,  a  city  to  be  so  large 
and  complete  as  Montreal,  the  commercial  Queen  of 
the  Dominion.  Montreal  is  situated  on  an  island, 
at  the  confluence  of  the  Ottawa  and  St.  Lawrence 


MONTREAL    AND    TORONTO.  31 

rivers,  containing  197  square  miles,  which,  from 
its  fertility,  has  been  called  the  garden  of  Canada. 
The  St.  Lawrence  is  li  miles  wide  opposite  the 
city,  and  the  whole  river  front  is  lined  with  massive 
walls,  quays,  and  terraces  of  grey  limestone,  which 
is  rather  of  a  depressing  colour,  unless  lighted  up 
by  the  sun.  There  is,  however,  a  warm  red  sand- 
stone hereabouts,  largely  and  skillfully  employed  by 
the  Montreal  masons,  and  this  produces  excellent 
effects,  and  makes  one  wish  Montreal  had  found  it 
out  before,  for  she  might  have  then  rivalled  Jeypore 
or  Futtehpore  Sikri — the  Indian  cities — in  richness 
of  general  tint.  Nevertheless,  it  is  a  really  hand- 
some and  imposing  capital,  commanding  the  trade 
of  the  great  river,  albeit  800  miles  from  its  mouth. 

Built  chiefly  on  the  level  ground  between  Mount 
Royal  and  the  river,  it  climbs  far  and  wide  over  the 
high  ground  near  Mount  Royal,  where  are  to  be 
found  many  charming  private  residences,  and  a 
fashionable  drive  extending  round  the  mountain, 
bordered  by  gardens  and  ornamental  enclosures,  and 
affording  fine  views  in  all  directions.  The  public 
buildings  are  fine,  especially  the  church  of  the 
Jesuits.  The  Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame  is  of  great 
size,  and  the  view  from  one  of  its  towers,  in  which 
hangs  "  Gros  Bourdon,"  the  great  bell,  singularly 
extensive  and  interesting.  It  is  characteristic  of  the 
passion  here  to  save  time  and  trouble  that  you 
mount  to  the  top  of  the  highest  church-tower  in 
Montreal  by  a  lift — and  very  convenient  is  the 
innovation,  if  not  strictly  canonical.  Montreal  has 
pretty  public  gardens,  copious  and  pure  supplies  of 


32  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

mountain  water,  and  unlimited  privileges  in  the 
way  of  electric  lighting,  telephones,  and  telegraph 
wires  ;  but  these  involve,  unfortunately,  the  universal 
presence  of  those  odious  and  hideous  poles  which 
rear  their  gaunt,  rough,  unpainted  nakedness  along 
every  street.  Huge  fir  trunks  they  are,  half-dressed 
from  the  forest,  enormously  thick  and  tall,  and  in 
Montreal,  as  in  so  many  another  town  and  city  of 
the  Dominion  and  of  the  States,  they  spoil  the  most 
charming  and  stately  vistas. 

Leaving  behind  in  this  agreeable  place  many  new 
and  pleasant  friends,  we  plunged  deeper  yet  into  the 
"  Queen's  America  "  by  taking  train,  on  the  Grand 
Trunk  Line,  for  Toronto.  The  voyage  by  river  from 
Belleisle  Straits  goes  all  the  way  steadily  south- 
wards, and  we  had  now  come  into  the  last  and 
hottest  days  of  the  Canadian  summer.  With  85 
degrees  in  the.  shade,  and  a  cloudless  sky  overhead, 
the  broad  and  fair  land  on  either  side  of  the  track 
seemed  almost  to  •  smoke  with  heat ;  but  plentiful 
recent  showers  had  left  it  green,  and  it  was  difficult 
to  realise  that  in  a  short  time  all  that  glowing 
landscape  would  be  covered  with  deep  snow,  the 
forests  glittering  with  frost-crystals,  and  the  streams 
locked  in  ice.  Yet  the  Canadian  winter  is  not 
spoken  of  as  any  hardship.  The  snow  keeps  the 
seeds  and  the  soil  warm  with  its  white  blanket ;  it 
makes  roads  for  the  lumbermen  in  the  woods,  and 
for  the  merry  sleigh-parties  in  the  towns ;  and  the 
still  atmosphere,  bracing  and  salubrious,  renders  not 
only  tolerable,  but  even  positively  pleasant,  tempera- 
tures so  much  below   zero,   that  brandy   freezes  at 


MONTREAL   AND    TORONTO.  ^ 

them;  and  the  milk,  and  pork,  and  butter  are  sold 
in  icy  blocks,  cut  off  with  a  hatchet.  Now,  at  the 
beginning  of  September,  it  is  high  summer-tide,  the 
fair  Canadians  go  about  in  muslins,  and  the  farm 
labourers  work  in  a  thin  jersey,  while  we  must  keep 
open  all  the  windows  and  doors  of  the  Pullman  ear, 
which  is  flying  along  the  northern  shore  of  Ontario, 
to  obtain  air  enough  this  sultry  noon. 

Suddenly  transported  hither,  a  careless  observer 
would  hardly  know  he  was  not  in  England.  The 
population,  of  course,  is  largely  British,  the  names 
of  the  stations  are  occasionally  very  much  so,  for  we 
stop  successively  at  Brighton,  Whitby,  Scarborough, 
as  well  as  at  spots  with  Indian  titles,  and  others 
christened  after  French  saints  or  local  points  of 
interest,  or  bygone  pioneers  of  civilisation.  There 
are,  it  is  true,  everywhere  the  "  snake  fences,"  those 
abominations  of  ugliness  and  wasted  material,  which 
wriggle  and  bristle  all  over  the  otherwise  pretty 
landscape,  raggedly  dividing  the  fields  and  spoil- 
ing their  trimness  and  agricultural  "-race.  It  is  so 
deplorably  easy  to  build  these  straggling  horrors, 
and  the  stuff  is  so  cheap,  that  we  must  expect  to 
encounter  them  everywhere;  but  they  would  mar 
the  look  of  any  country  in  the  world,  and  make  one 
think  with  new  affection  of  the  green  hedges  of 
England. 

Elsewhere  it  is  all  English  enough.  The  wild 
blossoming  herbs,  noticeable  along  the  line,  are 
old  acquaintances.  We  note  the  golden  rod,  the 
cornflower,  the  purple  thistle,  the  Michaelmas  daisy, 
the  dragon's  mouth,  the  dock,  plantain,  and   other 


34  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

familiar  friends ;  but  no  daisies  and  no  ivy.  Large 
levels  and  uplands,  fringed  with  woodlands  of  fir 
and  spruce,  meet  the  eye — sometimes  in  pasture, 
sometimes  covered  with  crops,  just  ripening,  of 
buckwheat,  barley,  rye,  and  Indian  corn.  Con- 
stantly the  primitive  forest  comes  down  to  the 
line,  and  we  dash  through  leagues  of  dark,  cool 
undergrowth,  amid  the  dense  columns  of  pine  stems, 
entering  now  and  then  a  clearing,  now  and  then  a 
space  made  black  and  open  by  reason  of  forest  fires, 
and  then  the  farms,  the  pastures,  and  the  barley- 
fields  once  more.  Almost  all  these  fields  are  full  of 
the  stumps  of  felled  trees,  for  it  has  been  less  labour 
to  plough,  sow,  and  reap  round  and  round  these 
relics  of  the  youth  of  the  colony,  than  to  remove 
them;  and  thus  a  considerable  part  of  the  region 
wears  the  look  of  an  interminable  cemetery,  where 
these  black  and  grey  roots  are  the,  gravestones  of  the 
ancient  universal  pine-woods,  and  of  their  Iroquois 
and  Huron  owners.  But  that  we  may  not  forget 
Ireland  among  these  unusual  impediments  of  agri- 
culture, our  train  has  just  swept  across  the  Ottawa 
River,  at  the  pretty  station  of  St.  Anne.  This 
locality — the  "Bout  de  PIsle" — is  much  frequented 
by  Montrealists '  in  the  summer  season,  and  possesses 
an  ancient  church,  revered  by  the  Canadian  boat- 
men and  voyageurs.  The  Ottawa  is  here  crossed 
by  a  fine  railway  bridge,  and  the  famous  rapids 
of  St.  Anne  are  flanked  by  a  canal.  And  here, 
of  all  places  in  the  world,  it  was  that  Moore 
wrote  his  well-known  Canadian  boat-song  begin- 
ning— 


MONTREAL   AND    TORONTO.  35 

•'  Faintly  as  tolls  the  evening  chime, 
Our  voices  keep  tune,  and  our  oars  keep  time. 
Soon  as  the  woods  on  the  shore  look  dim 
We'll  sing  at  St.  Anne's  our  parting  hymn. 
Row,  brothers,  row;  the  stream  runs  fast, 
The  rapids  are  near,  and  the  daylight's  past." 

It   is  pleasant   to  think  that   good  songs  live   when 
great  forests  vanish  and  races  pass  a  way. 

These  300  odd  miles  of  Canada,  traversed  by  the 
Grand  Central  Railway,  are  diversified,  as  lias  been 
remarked,  by  rocks  and  streams,  by  lonely  villages 
and  populous  towns,  by  plains  broad  and  open, 
covered  with  crops,  and  tracts  as  wild  and  untouched 
as  when  the  red  man's  mocassins  alone  trod  them. 
The  immense  expanse  continually  astonishes,  and 
its  endless,  abundance  of  rough  pasture  and  forest. 
And  yet  all  this  is  only  a  fringe  and  fragment  of  the 
vast  Dominion.  Our  330  miles  run  to-day  through 
such  a  region  is  but  a  kind  of  drive  from  one  home- 
stead to  another.  But  it  shows  us  Canada  busy  and 
prosperous — train  after  train  goes  past,  laden  with 
lumber,  grain,  fruits,  agricultural  machinery,  and 
eattle.  Especially  notable  is  the  "Hog-express," 
laden  with  unhappy  pigs  in  a  state  of  unwieldly 
obesity,  which  have  now  to  expiate  unlimited  rations 
of  maize  and  swill  in  their  happy  Western  styes,  by 
this  fatal  journey  to  Montreal,  or  Quebec,  or  Halifax, 
where  they  will  be  slaughtered  and  salted  down. 
One  train- passing  us  contained  more  than  10,000  of 
these  ill-starred  animals,  grunting  and  squeaking  at 
every  blast  of  the  steam-horn,  and  each  new  shock 
of  the  buffers.      The  chorus  of  porcine   protest    was 


3 6  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

loud  and  sad ;  and,  indeed,  only  a  Mussulman  could 
have  refrained  from  pitying  the  plaintive  snouts 
pressed  close  to  the  iron  bars  of  the  trucks  for  fresh 
air,  and  the  eloquent  tails,  which  protruded  through 
them,  and  were  twisted  into  perfect  corkscrews  of 
astonishment  and  despair.  Some  of  these  fattened 
hogs  are  shipped  for  England  alive  at  the  Dominion 
ports,  as  it  is  found  to  be  the  cheapest  way  of 
transporting  to  Great  Britain  the  eight  or  ten 
quarters  of  maize  which  each  pig  represents,  and 
the  pork-butchers  of  Liverpool  rather  prefer  to  drive 
the  carcasses  themselves.  But  large  consignments  of 
the  swine  go  over,  slaughtered  and  salted ;  and  we 
saw — but  would  not  enter — those  sanguinary  estab- 
lishments where  a  minute  and  a  quarter  of  merciless 
machinery  converts  hog  after  hog,  to  the  number  of 
thousands  in  the  day,  from  such  earthly  pleasures 
as  a  pig  can  know,  to  the  posthumous  honours  of 
bacon. 

Toronto  sits  splendidly  on  the  western  extremity 
of  her  lake,  which  presents,  even  here,  the  unwonted 
spectacle — to  the  British  eyes — of  a  boundless  ex- 
panse of  fresh  water.  Gaze  as  far  and  as  steadily  as 
you  will  into  that  south-eastern  horizon,  and  deepen 
your  search  with  the  aid  of  the  glass,  yet  no  faintest 
loom  of  land  arises  over  the  placid  light  grey  wavelets. 
You  would  have  to  sail  seventy  miles  in  that  direc- 
tion to  reach  the  American  shore,  and  one  hundred 
miles  to  get  back  into  the  narrows  near  Kingston, 
where  nestle  the  thousand  islands  with  their  green 
and  varied  beauty.  This  fair,  free,  inland  sea  has, 
no  doubt,  the  fault  of  lying  enclosed  by  a  low  coast, 


MONTREAL   AND    TORONTO.  37 

so  that  it  suggests  the  idea  of  shallowness,  and  lacks 
the  first  element  of  lake  scenery.  But  with  Niagara 
at  one  end  of  it  and  the  Great  St.  Lawrence  at  the 
other  it  can  afford,  like  the  little  Sea  of  Galilee,  which 
is  also  very  far  from  beautiful  in  its  surroundings, 
to  «-o  without  the  usual  romantic  accessories.  Its 
bosom  is  dotted  with  steamers,  coming  and  going, 
with  well  built  schooners,  two  and  three  masted,  as 
well  as  pleasure  yachts  and  boats  of  all  sorts,  moored 
or  moving  in  the  city  harbour,  which  is  formed  by 
the -washings  from  the  sandstone  ridges  eastwards. 
Huge  red  grain  elevators  rise  on  the  shore,  which 
sweeps  round  in  a  flattened  crescent  towards  the 
mouth  of  the  Niagara  River,  and  that  famous  cleft 
where  Erie  pours  the  waters  she  has  received  from 
Huron,  Michigan,  and  Superior,  into  Ontario.  ( )n 
fine  days  the  cloud  formed  by  the  spray  from  the 
great  cataract,  and  always  hanging  over  it,  can  be 
discerned  from  the  tower  of  Toronto  University, 
albeit  forty  miles  distant. 

Anybody  might  be  contented  to  reside  in  this 
charming  city,  which  was  once  called  York,  but  has 
now  the  pretty  Indian  word  for  its  "  married  and 
settled  name."  Its  streets  are  broad,  well-paved, 
and  regularly  laid  out.  The  principal  public  and 
private  dwellings  are  substantially  built,  and  de- 
lightful villas  abound  in  the  environs.  At  "  The 
Grange,"  where  this  is  written,  the  pleasant  resi- 
dence of  Professor  Goldwin  Smith,  we  have  old 
English  lawns,  and  might  be  at  Oxford.  The 
leading  thoroughfares  are  King,  Queen,  and  Yonge 
Streets;    the    most  important  building  is    the   I  11 1 — 


38  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

versity,  in  a  large  park,  approached  by  College 
Avenue,  which  is  over  half  a  mile  long,  lined  by  a 
double  row  of  trees.  The  University — over  which 
the  learned  President,  Sir  Daniel  Wilson,  did  us  the 
honour  to  be  our  guide — is  really  very  imposing 
architecturally,  and  well  equipped  for  its  important 
functions.  But,  thus  far,  Canada  does  not  seem  to 
have  given  birth  to  any  unique  local  genius  in 
scholarship  or  art.  She  still  too  much  imports  her 
literature  and  learning,  albeit  the  land  is  one  well 
fitted  to  inspire  patriotism  with  new  poetic  colours, 
and  capacity  with  original  ideas. 

The  city  lies  between  the  Don  and  the  Humber 
rivers,  and  really  on  dirait  du  veau  I  you  would 
think  you  were  in  an  English  town  as  you  walk 
its  streets.  For  the  matter  of  that,  illusions  are 
easy.  You  may  travel  a  little  way  westward,  and 
come  to  London  itself.  The  Canadian  London 
stands  quite  properly  in  the  County  of  Middlesex, 
overlooking  the  valley  of  the  Thames,  and  has  its 
Piccadilly,  its  Regent  Street,  its  Pall  Mall  and 
Westminster  Bridge,  as  well  as  a  Cathedral  and 
very  seriously  built  public  edifices.  But,  at  present, 
it  only  numbers  20,000  Londoners — the  rest  are  to 
come  when  Canada  has  settled  the  two  great  pro- 
blems which  agitate  her  bosom,  that  of  the  French- 
speaking  and  Jesuit-ruled  population,  and  that  of 
the  proposed  commercial  union  with  the  States. 
The  only  objects  which  strike  the  eye  at  all 
strangely  as  the  Englishman  strolls  the  wide  streets 
of  Toronto  will  be  the  planked  side-walks,  the  fans 
revolving    in    the     confectioners'    windows    to  keep 


MONTREAL  AND   TORONTO.  39 

the  flies  away,  and  the  eternal  eyesore  of  those 
huge  poles  for  the  telephonic  and  telegraphic  wires. 
In  this  bright  and  lively  city  everybody  chatters  all 
day  long  by  electric  current,  every  respectable  resi- 
dence and  shop  has  all  the  ears  of  Toronto  open  to 
it.  In  the  midst  of  a  conversation  at  lunch  you 
start  up  to  seek  by  the  telephone  the  views  of  a 
friend  a  mile  oft',  and  inquire  if  people  are  at  home 
by  scientific  whispers,  before  setting  forth  to  call 
upon  them.  London  is  an  age  behind  her  little 
namesake  of  Ontario  in  electrical  conveniences. 

Of  Canadian  politics  nothing  has  been  or  will  be 
here  said.  It  is  an  unpardonable  arrogance  for  a 
man  to  imagine  that  he — a  human  bird  of  passage 
— however  well  accustomed  to  "  bird's  eye  views  " 
of  public  life  and  public  problems,  can  pick  up 
information  worth  imparting  upon  national  ques- 
tions as  he  speeds  through  the  societies  of  a  land. 
Perhaps  the  profound  mystery  has  been  privately 
dispelled,  which  lurked  at  first  in  the  words,  read 
in  a  local  journal,  "  The  East  London  Grits  have 
fallen  back  upon  Mr.  Smith."  Perhaps  an  explana- 
tion has  been  given  secretly  why  the  Premier  of 
a  Canadian  province,  who  as  our  shipmate  was  of 
such  admirable  courtesy,  intelligence,  and  social 
charm,  should  be  described  in  another  local  journal 
as  "equally  impervious  to  considerations  of  public 
and  domestic  morality."  We  may  have  come  to 
understand  a  little  better  than  at  first,  the  genial 
ferocity  of  politics  here;  and  certain  small  mole- 
hills which  figure  in  them  for  mountains;  but  the 
broad  facts  are  that    Canada    is    alive,    robust,  and 


4o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

loyal,  and  wants  only  plenty  of  English  and  Scotch 
and  Welsh  immigrants,  who  will  stop  in  the  colony 
and  develop)  its  natural  resources,  to  settle  and  to 
control  the  French  element,  and  then — without  the 
des]3erate  expedient  of  burning  down  the  house  of 
her  commercial  independence  in  order  to  roast  the 
Gallic  pig — she  will  do  well  enough. 

Toronto,  Sept.  7,  1889. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

NIAGARA. 

Before  the  balcony  in  which  this  is  written  the 
Great  Cataract  of  America  is  thundering,  smoking, 
glittering  with  green  and  white  rollers  and  rapids, 
hurling  the  waters  of  a  whole  continent  in  splen- 
dour and  speed  over  the  sharp  ledges  of  the  long- 
brown  rock  by  which  Erie  "  the  Broad "  steps 
proudly  down  to  Ontario  "  the  Beautiful."  Close 
at  hand  on  our  left — not  indeed  farther  removed 
than  some  GOO  or  700  yards — the  smaller  but  very 
imposing  American  Fall  speaks  with  the  louder 
voice  of  the  two,  because  its  coiling  spirals  of 
twisted  and  furious  flood  crash  in  full  impulse 
of  descent  upon  the  talus  of  massive  boulders 
heaped  up  at  its  foot.  The  resounding  impact  of 
water  on  rock,  the  clouds  of  water-smoke  which 
rise  high  in  air  while  the  river  below  is  churned 
into  a  whirling  cream  of  eddy  and  surge  and 
backwater,  unite  in  a  composite  effect,  at  once 
magnificent  and  bewildering.  But  if  yon  listen 
attentively  you  will  always  hear  the  profound  dia- 
pason of  the  great  Fall — that  surnamed  the  horse- 
shoe— sounding  superbly  amid  the  loudest  clamour 
and    tumult    of    its    sister,    a    deeper    and    grander 


42  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

note;  and  whenever  for  a  time  the  gaze  rests  with 
inexhaustible  wonder  upon  that  fierce  and  tumult- 
uary American  Fall,  this  mightier  and  still  more 
marvellous  Horseshoe  steals  it  away  again  with 
irresistible  fascination. 

Full  in  front  lies  that  wholly  indescribable  spectacle 
at  this  instant.  Its  solemn  voice — an  octave  lower 
than  the  excited,  leaping,  almost  angry  cry  of  fervid 
life  from  the  lesser  cataract — resounds  through  the 
golden  summer  morning  air  like  the  distant  roar  from 
the  streets  of  fifty  Londons  all  in  full  activity.  Far 
away,  between  the  dark  grey  trees  of  Goat  Island 
and  the  fir-woods  of  the  Canadian  shore,  the  Niagara 
River  is  seen  winding  eagerly  to  its  prodigious  leap. 
You  can  discern,  even  from  this  balcony,  the  line  of 
the  first  breakers,  where  the  Niagara  River  feels, 
across  its  whole  breadth,  the  fateful  draw  of  the 
Cataracts,  where  its  current  seems  suddenly  to  leap 
forward,  stimulated  by  a  mad  desire,  a  hidden  spell, 
a  dreadful  and  irresistible  doom.  You  can  note 
far  back  along  the  glided  surface  of  the  upj)er 
stream  how  these  lines  of  dancing,  tossing,  eager, 
anxious,  and  fate-impelled  breakers  and  billows, 
multiply  their  white  ranks  and  •  spread  and  close 
together  their  leaping  ridges  into  a  wild  chaos  of 
racing  waves  as  the  brink  is  a]3proached.  And 
then,  at  the  brink  there  is  a  curious  pause — the 
momentary  peace  of  the  Irrevocable.  Those  mad 
upper  waters — reaching  the  great  leap — are  sud- 
denly become  all  quiet,  and  glassy,  and  rounded, 
and  green  as  the  border  of  a  field  of  rye,  while 
they  turn  the  angle  of  the  dreadful  ledge  and  hurl 


NIAGARA.  43 

themselves  into  the  snow-white  unit'   of   noise,  and 
mist,  and  mystery  underneath. 

There  is  nothing  more  translucently  green,  nor 
more  perennially  still  and  lovely,  than  the  actual 
hanging  brow  of  Niagara  the  Greater.  At  her 
awful  brink  the  whole  architrave  of  the  main  abyss 
gleams  like  a  fixed  and  glorious  work  wrought  in 
polished  aquamarine  or  emerald.  This  exquisitely 
coloured  cornice  of  the  enormous  waterfall — this  brim 
of  bright  tranquillity  between  fervor  of  rush  and 
fury  of  plunge — is  its  principal  feature,  and  stamps 
it  as  far  more  beautiful  than  terrible.  Indeed  the 
whole  spectacle  of  the  famous  cataracts  is  one  of 
delight  and  of  deepest  charm,  not  by  any  means  of 
horror  or  of  awe ;  since  nowhere  are  the  measureless 
forces  of  Nature  more  tenderly  revealed,  more  softly 
and  splendidly  clad,  more  demurely  constrained  and 
docile  between  its  steep  confines.  Even  the  heart 
of  the  abyss,  in  the  recess  of  the  Horseshoe,  where 
the  waters  of  Erie  and  Superior  clash  together 
in  tremendous  conflict — the  inner  madness  and 
miracle  of  which  no  eye  can  see  or  ever  will  sec, 
by  reason  of  the  veils  of  milky  spray  and  of  the 
rolling  clouds  of  water-drift  which  for  ever  hide  it 
— even  this  central  solemnity  and  shudder-fraught 
miracle  of  the  monstrous  uproar  and  glory  is  ren- 
dered exquisite,  reposeful,  and  soothing  by  the 
lovely  rainbows  hanging  over  the  turmoil  and 
clamour.  From  its  crest  of  chrvsoprase  and  silver, 
indeed,  to  its  broad  foot  of  milky  foam  and  of  white 
stunned  waves,  too  broken  and  too  dazed  to  begin 
at  first  to  float  away,  Niagara  appears   not   terrible, 


44  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

but  divinely  and  deliciously  graceful,  glad,  and 
lovely — a  specimen  of  the  splendour  and  wonder 
of  water  at  its  finest — a  sight  to  dwell  and  linger 
in  the  mind  with  ineffaceable  images  of  happy  and 
grateful  thought,  by  no  means  to  effect  it  either 
in  act  of  seeing,  or  to  haunt  it  in  future  days  of 
memory,  with  any  wild  reminiscence  of  terror  or 
of  s;l  oom. 

It  was  impossible  that  a  country  like  Canada,  full 
of  such  magnificent  natural  scenes  and  spectacles, 
should  not  have  inspired  some  of  her  native-born 
children ;  and  it  has  been  wrongly  stated  in  a 
j)revious  communication  that  the  "Land  of  the 
Maple-leaf"  had  produced  no  local  poets.  Better 
opportunities  of  information  and  of  study  correct  this 
erroneous  view,  and  the  present  letter  shall  contain 
a  brief  conspectus  of  the  indigenous  poetry  of  the 
Dominion,  with  samples  enough  of  the  Canadian 
Muse  to  prove  that  the  thunder  of  Niagara,  the 
softer  music  of  the  river  and  rapids  of  the  upper 
regions,  and  the  placid  ripple  of  the  Sweet- Water 
Seas,  have  found  echoes  in  Canadian  hearts.  Mr. 
Lighthall,  of  Montreal,  says  well  in  his  "  Songs  of 
the  Great  Dominion  " — "  Here  are  voices  cheerful 
with  the  consciousness  of  young  might,  public 
wealth,  and  heroism.  Through  them,  taken  alto- 
gether, you  may  catch  something  of  great  Niagara 
falling,  of  brown  rivers  rushing  with  foam,  of  the 
crack  of  the  rifle  in  the  haunts  of  the  moose  and 
caribou,  the  lament  of  vanishing  races  singing  their 
death  song  as  they  are  swept  on  to  the  cataract  of 
oblivion,  the  rural  sounds  of  Arcadias  just  rescued 


NIAGARA.  45 

from  surrounding  wildernesses  by  the  axe,  chrill 
war-whoops  of  Iroquois  battle,  proud  traditions  of 
contests  with  the  French  and  the  Americans,  stern 
and  sorrowful  cries  of  valour  rising  to  curl)  rebellion. 
The  tone  of  them  is  courage;  for  to  hunt,  to  fight, 
to  hew  out  a  farm,  one  must  be  a  man  !  The  delight 
of  a  clear  atmosphere  runs  through  them  too,  and  the 
rejoicings  of  that  Winter  Carnival  which  is  only  pos- 
sible in  the  most  athletic  country  in  the  world ;  with 
the  glint  of  that  Ice  Palace  of  illumined  pearl,  which 
makes  the  February  jrilgrimage  of  North  America." 
Canadian  poetry  is  full  of  the  canoe,  as  Australian 
verse  begins  and  ends  with  the  horse,  or  the  French 
chansons  of  the  Lower  Provinces  with  love.  The 
note  of  the  paddle  is  constantly  heard,  as  in  this 
verse  by  Mr.  James  D.  Edgar — 

"  A  cooling  plunge  at  the  break  of  day, 

A  paddle,  a  row,  or  sail ; 
With  always  a  fish  for  a  midday  dish, 

And  plenty  of  Adam's  ale  ; 
With  rod  or  gun,  or  in  hammock  swung, 

We  glide  through  the  pleasant  days  ; 
When  darkness  falls  on  our  canvas  walls, 

We  kindle  the  camp-fire's  blaze." 

And  Mr.  Bliss  Carman's  ode  to  his  favourite 
canoe,  "The  Red  Swan,"  is  worth  remembering 
in  almost  every  line.     Here  is  a  sample — 

"  Through  many  an  evening  gone, 

Where  the  roses  drank  the  breeze, 
When  the  pale  slow  moon  outshone 

Through  the  slanting  trees, 
I  have  dreamed  of  the  loni:  Red  Swan. 


46  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

How  I  should  know  that  one 

Great  stroke,  and  the  time  of  the  swing 

Urging  her  on  and  on, 
Spring  after  spring, 

Lifting  the  long  Red  Swan, 

Lifting  the  long  Red  Swan  ! 

How  I  should  drink  the  foam — 

The  far  white  lines  from  her.  swift 
Keen  bow,  when  burning  to  come, 

With  lift  upon  lift, 
The  long  Red  Swan  flew  home !  " 

But  perhaps  the  most  striking  writer  of  Canadian 
verse  is  the  late  brilliant  Isabella  Valancey  Crawford. 
This  remarkable  girl,  living  in  the  "  Empire  "  pro- 
vince of  Ontario,  early  felt  the  influence  of  the 
natural  wonders  around  her,  and  had  she  lived 
longer  might  have  made  a  name.  But  in  1884 
her  modest  volume  came  out,  and  the  sad  story 
of  unrecognised  genius  and  death  was  re-enacted. 
"  Malcolm's  Katie,  and  other  poems,"  almost  dropped 
stillborn  from  the  press.  Scarcely  anybody  noticed 
it  in  Canada.  It  made  no  stir,  and  in  little  more 
than  two  years  the  authoress  died.  She  was  a  high- 
spirited,  passionate  girl,  and  there  is  very  little  doubt 
that  the  neglect  her  book  received  was  the  cause 
of  her  death.  Afterwards,  as  usual,  a  good  many 
people  began  to  find  they  had  overlooked  work  of 
merit.  Miss  Crawford's  verse  is,  in  fact,  exceptional. 
Here,  for  example,  is  good  writing  for  a  settler  girl 
listening  to  the  lumberers — 

"  Bite  deep  and  wide,  O  Axe,  this  tree ; 
What  doth  thy  bold  voice  promise  me? 


NIAGARA.  47 

I  promise  thee  all  joyous  things, 
That  furnish  forth  the  lives  of  kings! 

For  ev'ry  silver  ringing  blow, 
Cities  and  palaces  shall  grow  ! 

Bite  deep  and  wide,  O  Axe,  the  tree ; 
Tell  wider  prophecies  to  me. 

When  rust  hath  gnaw'd  me  deep  and  red, 
A  nation  strong  shall  lift  her  head  ! 

Her  crown  the  very  Heav'ns  shall  smite, 
iEons  shall  build  her  in  their  might ! 

Bite  deep  and  wide,  0  Axe,  the  tree  ; 
Bright  Seer,  help  on  thy  prophecy  !  " 

Very  good  work  again  is  seen  in  Miss  Crawford's 
'*  Malcolm's  Katie."  In  proof,  let  anybody  read 
these  lines,  redolent  of  the  night-waving  pines 
and  the  hunter's  life — 

"My  masters  twain  their  tent-fire  lit, 
Streamed  incense  from  the  hissing  cones; 
Large  crimson  flashes  grew  and  whhTd, 
Thin  golden  nerves  of  sly  light  curl'd, 
Round  the  dun  camp,  and  rose  faint  zones 
Half-way  about  each  grim  bole  knit, 
Like  a  shy  child  that  would  bedeck 
With  its  soft  clasp  a  Brave's  red  neck  ; 
Yet  set's  the  rough  shield  on  his  breast, 
The  awful  plumes  shake  on  his  crest, 
And  fearful  drops  her  timid  face, 
Nor  dares  complete  the  sweet  embrace. 

They  hung  the  slaughter' d  fish  like  swords, 
On  sapling  slim,  like  scimitars 


48  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

Bright,  and  ruddied  from  new-waged  wars, 
Blazed  in  the  light — the  scaly  hordes. 

They  piled  up  boughs  beneath  the  trees 
Of  cedar-web  and  green  fir  tassel ; 
Low  did  the  pointed  pine  tops  rustle, 
The  camp  fire  flush'd  to  the  tender  breeze. 

The  hounds  laid  dew-laps  on  the  ground, 
With  needles  of  pine,  sweet,  soft,  and  rusty — 
Dream'd  of  the  dead  stag,  stout  and  lusty ; 
A  bat  by  the  red  flames  wove  its  round. 

The  darkness  built  its  wigwam  walls 
Close  round  the  camp,  and  at  its  curtain 
Press'd  shapes,  thin  woven  and  uncertain, 
The  white  locks  of  tall  waterfalls." 

Moreover,  to  show  what  fine  and  delicate  songs 
the  Canadian  Sappho  could  indite,  let  this  sweet 
and  almost  perfect  little  lyric  be  rescued  for  general 
admiration  from  the  gloom  of  the  backwoods — 

"  O  Love  builds  on  the  azure  sea, 

And  Love  builds  on  the  golden  strand ; 
And  Love  builds  on  the  rose-wing'd  cloud, 
And  sometimes  Love  builds  on  the  land. 

O  if  Love  builds  on  sparkling  sea, 
And  if  Love  builds  on  golden  strand, 

And  if  Love  builds  on  rosy  clouds — 
To  Love,  these  are  the  solid  land. 

O  Love  will  build  his  lily  walls, 

And  Love  his  pearly  roof  will  rear 
On  cloud  or  land,  or  mist  or  sea ; 

Love's  solid  land  is  everywhere !  " 

One  peculiar  feature  of  Canadian  verse,  indeed, 
is  its  strength  in  lady  singers.     The  number    who 


NIAGARA.  49 

have  produced  good,  or  fairly  good,  poetry,  is  headed 
by  the  gifted  girl  just  cited,  but  Mrs.  Sarah  Anne 
Curzon  writes  with  power  and  spirit.  The  best 
war  songs  of  the  late  half-breed  rebellion  were 
written  by  Annie  Roth  well,  of  Kingston.  "  Fidel  is  " 
(Agnes  Maude  Machar),  who  is  frequently  called 
the  first  of  Dominion  poetesses,  excels  in  a  graceful 
subjectivity.  Then  there  are  Kate  Seymour  Mac- 
leur,  authoress  of  "  The  Coming  of  the  Princess  ;  " 
"  Seranus,"  of  Toronto  (Mrs.  Harrison),  whose 
"Rose  Latulippe  "  is  quite  charming;  Miss  Pauline 
Johnson,  of  Indian  descent ;  Miss  Ardagh,  Mrs. 
Leprohon,  with  many  others,  among  whom  may 
again  be  quoted  "  Fidelis,"  for  her  spirited  lines 
in  answer  to  the  Laureate,  and  in  vindication  of 
the  loyalty  of  Canada — 

Canada  to  the  Laureate. 

"  '  And  that  true  North,  whereof  we  lately  heard 
A  stain  to  shame  us !     Keep  you  to  yourselves, 
So  loyal  is  too  costly  !     Friends,  your  love 
Is  but  a  burden  :  loose  the  bond  and  go — 
Is  this  the  tone  of  Empire  ? ' 

[Tennyson 's  Ode  to  the  Queen.) 

"We  thank  thee,  Laureate,  for  thy  kindly  words 
Spoken  for  us  to  her  to  whom  we  look 
With  loyal  love,  across  the  misty  sea  ; 
Thy  noble  words,  whose  generous  tone  may  shame 
The  cold  and  heartless  strain  that  said  Begone, 
We  want  your  love  no  longer;  all  our  aim 
Is  riches — that  your  love  can  not  increase  ! ' 
Fain  would  we  tell  that  we  do  not  seek 
To  hang  dependent,  like  a  helpless  brood 
That,  selfish,  drag  a  weary  mother  down  ; 


50  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

For  we  have  British  hearts  and  British  blood 

That  leap  up,  eager,  when  the  danger  calls ! 

Once  and  again  our  sons  have  sprung  to  arms 

To  fight  in  Britain's  quarrel — not  our  own — 

And  drive  the  covetous  invader  back, 

Who  would  have  let  us,  peaceful,  keep  our  own, 

So  we  had  cast  the  British  name  away. 

Canadian  blood  has  dyed  Canadian  soil, 

For  Britain's  honour,  that  we  deemed  our  own, 

Nor  do  we  ask  but  for  the  right  to  keep 

Unbroken,  still,  the  cherished  filial  tie 

That  binds  us  to  the  distant  sea-girt  isle 

Our  fathers  loved  and  taught  their  sons  to  love, 

As  the  dear  home  of  freemen,  brave  and  true, 

And  loving  honour  more  than  ease  or  gold." 

Next  comes  a  whole  cohort  of  Canadian  poets 
who  sing  principally  of  Imperial  Federation,  the 
new  nationality,  the  Indians,  the  Voyageurs,  and 
Habitans,  settlement  life,  historical  incidents,  places, 
and  seasons.  Canadian  history,  as  all  acquainted 
with  Parkman  will  know,  teems  with  noble  deeds 
and  great  events,  of  which  only  a  small  part  have 
been  sung.  The  North- West  and  British  Columbia 
— the  gold-diggings  province,  the  salmon  rivers, 
the  Douglas  firs,  which  hide  daylight  at  noonday — 
have  yet  to  find  their  chroniclers.  The  poetry  of 
the  Winter  Carnival,  splendid  scenic  spectacle  of 
gay  Northern  arts  and  delights,  is  to  come  also. 
Those  who  have  been  present  at  the  thrilling 
spectacle  of  the  nocturnal  storming  of  the  Ice  Palace 
in  Montreal,  "  when  the  whole  city,  dressing  itself 
in  the  picturesque  snow-shoe  costume  and  arraying 
its  streets  in  lights   and   colours,  rises  as  one  man 


NIAGARA.  51 

in  a  tumultuous  enthusiasm,"  feel  that  it  should 
inspire  fitting  verse.  As  for  the  climate  of  Canada, 
winter  is  not  perpetual,  but  merely,  in  most  parts, 
somewhat  long.  It  does  not  strike  the  inhabitants 
as  intolerably  severe.  It  is  the  season  of  most  of 
their  enjoyments;  gives  them  their  best  roads;  is 
indispensable  to  some  industries,  such  as  lumber- 
ing ;  and  the  clear  nights  and  diamond  days  are 
sparklingly  beautiful.  "  Furthermore,  the  climate 
is  not  one  but  several.  In  British  Columbia  it  is 
so  equable  the  whole  year  round  that  roses  some- 
times bloom  out  of  doors  in  January,  and  the 
cactus  is  a  native  plant.  In  the  Niagara  penin- 
sula grapes  and  peaches  are  crops  raised  yearly  in 
immense  quantities,  and  the  sycamore  and  acacia 
flourish.  On  the  plains  temperature  grows  milder 
in  proportion  as  you  approach  to  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains." As  Mr.  William  Wye  Smith  writes  about 
the  "  Canadians  on  the  Nile  " — 

"  0  the  East  is  but  the  West,  with  the  sun  a  little  hotter ; 
And  the  pine  becomes  a  palm,  by  the  durk  Egyptian  water  : 
And  the  Nile's  like  many  a  stream  we  know,  that  fills  its 

brimming   cup — 
We'll  think  it  is  the  Ottawa,  as  we  track  the  batteaux  up ! 
Pull,  pull,  pull!  as  we  track  the  batteaux  up! 
It's  easy  shooting  homeward,  when  we're  at  the  top !  " 

Sometimes  the  dark  mysterious  glades  and 
rushing,  nameless  streams  of  the  Dominion  have 
inspired  worthily  her  indigenous  minstrels,  as  in 
these  striking  verses  of  Mr.  Wilfred  Campbell  on 
a  backwood  channel  named  the  "Restless  River"- — 


52  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

"  Men  say,  at  noon  of  clay, 
In  thickets  far  away 
Where  skies  are  dim  and  grey, 
And  birches  stir  and  shiver, 
That  out  of  the  gloomy  air 
A  voice  goes  up  in  prayer 
From  the  shores  of  the  Restless  River. 

Whatever  its  sin  hath  been, 

Its  shores  are  still  as  green, 

And  over  it  kindly  lean 
Great  forests  heavenward  growing ; 

And  its  waters  are  as  sweet, 

And  its  tides  more  strong  and  fleet 
Than  of  any  river  flowing. 

But  for  all  its  outward  mirth, 
And  the  glow  that  spans  its  girth, 

Its  voices  from  air  and  earth, 
Its  walls  of  leaves  that  quiver  ; 

Men  say  an  .awful  curse, 

As  dread  as  death,  and  worse 
Hangs  over  the  Restless  River. 

And  the  dreamy  Indian  girl 

When  she  sees  its  waters  curl 

In  many  a  silver  whirl, 
Hath  pity  on  Restless  River ; 

For  she  knoweth  that,  long  ago, 

Its  tides,  that  once  were  slow, 

By  reason  of  some  dread  woe 
Went  suddenly  swift  for  ever : 

That  a  dread  and  unknown  curse, 

For  a  sin,  or  something  worse, 
Was  laid  on  the  Restless  River." 

Sometimes    it    is    the    stateliness    and    splendid 
growth    of    their    young    eities    which    stirs    their 


NIAGARA.  53 

imagination,  as  in  this  sonnet  by  Mr.  Lighthall  to 
Montreal — 

"  Reign  on,  majestic  Ville-Marie ! 

Spread  wide  thy  ample  robes  of  state ; 
The  heralds  cry  that  thou  art  great, 
And  proud  are  thy  young  sons  of  thee. 

Mistress  of  half  a  continent, 

Thou  risest  from  thy  girlhood's  rest ; 

We  see  thee  conscious  heave  thy  breast 
And  feel  thy  rank  and  thy  descent, 
Sprung  off  the  saint  and  chevalier, 

And  with  the  Scarlet  Tunic  wed  ! 

Mount  Royal's  crown  upon  thy  head  ; 
And  past  thy  footstool,  broad  and  clear, 
St.  Lawrence  sweeping  to  the  sea : 
Reign  on,  majestic  Ville-Marie !  " 

Sometimes  their  fancy  lingers  over  the  vanished 
tribes  of  the  Iroquois,  Algonquin,  Chippewa,  and 
Sioux,  whose  recollection  lives  in  the  musical 
nomenclature  of  Canada — 

"  The  memory  of  the  Red  Man, 

It  lingers  like  a  spell 
On  many  a  storm-swept  headland, 

On  many  a  leafy  dell  ; 
Where  Tusket's  thousand  islets, 

Like  emeralds,  stud  the  deep ; 
Where  Blomidon,  a  sentry  grim, 

His  endless  watch  doth  keep. 

It  dwells  round  Catalon's  blue  lake, 

'Mid  leafy  forests  hid — 
Round  fair  Discourse,  and  the  rushing  tides 

Of  the  turbid  Pisiquid. 


54  SEAS  AND  LANE'S. 

And  it  lends,  Chebogue,  a  touching  grace 

To  thy  softly  flowing  river, 
As  we  sadly  think  of  the  gentle  race 

That  has  passed  away  forever." 

Constantly,  too,  the  glories  of  the  great  St.  Law- 
rence load  the  verse  and  fascinate  the  imagination 
of  the  youthful  and,  so  far,  little-known  singers  of 
the  Dominion.  Miss  K.  L.  Jones  has  an  excellent 
ode  to  the  mighty  stream,  which  thus  concludes — 

"  Stretching  her  arms  to  the  world, 

Glad,  as  a  maid  to  her  lover ; 
Coyly,  with  banners  unfurled, 

Welcoming  argosies  over  ; 
Wearied,  her  life's  journey  done, 

Grateful  to  God,  the  life-giver, 
Her  goal  on  the  ocean's  breast  won, 

Rests  the  great  river. 

And,  again,  speaking  of  the  old  pioneers — 

"  He  told  them  of  the  river,  whose  mighty  current  gave 
Its  freshness  for  three  hundred  leagues  to  ocean's  briny  wave ; 
He  told  them  of  the  glorious  scene  presented  to  his  sight, 
What  time  he  reared  the  cross  and  crown  on  Hochelaga's  height; 
And  of  the  fortress  cliftj  that  keeps  of  Canada  the  key  ; 
And  they  welcomed  back  Jacques  Cartier  from  the  perils  of  the 
sea." 

It  would  give  many  a  hard-working  head  of  a 
family  in  England  new  and  good  ideas  to  read  some 
of  these  joyous  and  free  Canadian  songs,  even  when 
they  are  not  of  the  highest  poetic  art ;  for  always 
they  breathe  the  spirit  of  happy  independence,  and 
of  a  life  lived  face  to  face  with  Nature,  who  pays 


NIAGARA.  55 

honest  toil  in  this  large  land  with  almost  certain 
prosperity  and  comfort.  "  Here's  the  Road  !  "  cries 
Mr.  A.  M'Lachlan,  under  title  of 

Acres  of  Your  Own. 

"  Here's  the  road  to  independence  ? 
Who  would  bow  and  dance  attendance? 
Who,  with  e'er  a  spark  of  pride, 
While  the  bush  is  wild  and  wide, 
Would  be  still  a  hanger-on, 
Begging  favours  from  a  throne, 
While  beneath  yon  smiling  sun 
Farms,  by  labour,  can  be  won  ? 
Up  !  be  stirring,  be  alive. 
Get  upon  a  farm  and  thrive? 
He's  a  king  upon  his  throne 
Who  has  acres  of  his  own  ?  " 

Enough  has  now  been  written  to  prove  that 
Canada  has  produced  agreeable  and  accomplished 
singers,  male  and  female,  as  well  as  lumber  and 
grain,  cattle  and  canned  salmon.  Yet  one  word 
more  must  be  said  in  reference  to  the  French  por- 
tion of  the  population,  who  have  a  pretty  native 
minstrelsy  of  their  own,  best  studied  in  M.  Ernest 
Gagnon's  "  Chansons  Populaires  du  Canada."  But 
here,  too,  information  must  be  drawn  from  Mr. 
Lighthall's  excellent  volume,  which  deals  sym- 
pathetically with  the  topic.  The  number  of  the 
little  French  lilts  floating  in  the  air  of  Lower 
Canada  is  incalculable. 

One,  almost  universal,  is  "  A  la  Claire  Fontaine." 
"From  the  little  child  of  seven  years  up  to  the 
man  of  silver  hair,  all  the  people  in  Canada   know 


56   .  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

and  sing  the  '  Claire  Fontaine.'  One  is  not  French- 
Canadian  without  that."  In  Normandie  they  have 
a  similar  chanson,  but  the  air,  which  here  is  mono- 
tonous but  attractive,  is  different.  The  original 
commences  thus — 

"  A  la  elaire  fontaine 
M'en  allant  promener, 
J'ai  trouve  l'eau  si  belle 
Que  je  m'y  suis  baigne." 

Then  there  comes  a  charming  little  chorus — 

"  Lui  ya  longtemps  que  je  t'aime' 
Jamais  je  ne  t'oublierai." 

Ma  mi-e ! 
'  Ya  longtemps  que  je  t'aime 
Jamais  je  ne  t'oublierai." 

One  verse  thus  addresses  the  nightingale — 

"  Chante,  rossignol,  chante, 

Toi  qui  as  le  coeur  gai, 
Tu  as  le  coeur  a  rire 

Moi,  je  l'ai-t-a  pleurer.' 
Lui  ya  longtemps  que  je  t'aime  ; 
Jamais  je  ne  t'oublierai." 

"  C'est  la  Belle  Francois "  is  a  livelier   but  very 
common  Quebec  song — 

"  C'est  la  belle  Francoise,  bon  gai, 
C'est  la  belle  Francoise, 
C^ui  veut  s'y  marier,  ma  lurou,  lurette, 
Qui  veut  s'y  marier,  ma  luron,  lure." 

The  lover  goes  on  to  comfort  her  with  a  promise  to 
marry  her  on  his  return  from  the  war,  "Si  j'y  suis 


NIAGARA.  57 

respecte."  ending  always  with  the  flippant  "  Ma 
luron,  lurette;  ma  luron,  hire!"  Several  belong 
particularly  to  the  raftsmen  and  lumberers  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  Ottawa  rivers.     Such  is — 

"  Via  l'bon  vent,  v'la  l'joli  vent 
Via,  l'bon  vent,  ma  niie  m'appelle, 
Via  l'bon  vent,  v'la  l'joli  vent, 
Via  l'bon  vent,  ma  niie  m'attend." 

Sung  from  a  huge  raft,  with  shanties  on  it,  descend- 
ing one  of  these  broad  open  rivers,  by  the  rough  and 
jolly  crew,  this  has  a  genuine  inspiration  of  free 
life  about  it.  Of  a  wild  character,  too,  is  "  Alouette," 
whose  very  beautiful  air  has  made  it  a  favourite 
college  song.  The  gaiety  of  France  marks  almost 
all  of  them  ;  and  this  has  a  touch  of  humour — 

" '  Ma  mignonnette,  embrassez-moi.' 
'  Nenni,  Monsieur,  je  n'oserais, 
Car  si  mon  papa  le  savait.'  " 

But  who  would  tell  her  papa?  Why  !  "the  birds  of 
the  woods " — 

"  '  Les  oiseaux  parlent  ils? 
'  Ils  parlent  franeais,  latin  aussi.' 

'lis  parlent  franeais,  latin  aussi.' 
'  Helas,  ijue  le  monde  est  maliii 
D'apprende  mix  oiseaux  le  latin  ! ' ' 

Lastly,  here  is  a   French   chanson   which   prettily 
repeats  the  "  '  Nobody  axed  you,  sir  '  she  said  " — 

'Qui  done  etes-vous,  ma  eharmante, 
Pour  refuser  mi  chevalier! 


58  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

Quelque  dame  riche  et  j)uissante  ? 
— Je  suis  la  fille  du  meunier. 

Quoi !  du  meunier  '  Dieu  nie  pardonne ! 
J'en  suis  marri  pour  ton  bonheur : 
Je  ne  puis  t'epouser,  ma  bonne. 
— Qui  vous  a  demande,  seigneur?" 

But  with  this  enough  and  to  spare  has  been 
collected  to  prove  that  Canada  is  by  no  means 
songless. 

At  Niagara,  Sept  10,  1889. 


CHAPTER    V. 

AMERICAN    SOIL. 

Washington  has  been  called,  not  without  reason. 
"the  city  of  magnificent  distances" — for  its  wide, 
well-paved,  interminable  vistas  of  stately  buildings 
and  handsome  residences  of  white  and  grey  stone, 
or  red  brick,  lead  the  eye  everywhere  towards  a 
vanishing  point.  And  America  herself  might  well 
be  styled  "  The  land  of  magnificent  distances." 
The  immense  network  of  railroads,  everywhere 
covering  the  States,  seems  to  have  abolished 
the  sense  of  space  for  this  people.  They  fly  about 
hither  and  thither  without  regard  for  a  few  hundred 
miles  of  journeying  more  or  less,  and  the  stranger 
within  their  gates  soon  learns  to  share  their  in- 
difference to  extended  locomotion.  Moreover,  the 
system  of  travelling  is  very  good  and  well-arranged. 
The  American  passion  for  equality  will  not  permit 
our  categories  of  first,  second,  and  third  class;  but 
there  exists  on  all  trains  a  "parlour  car,"  for  which 
a  moderate  excess  fare  is  paid  to  a  special  conductor. 
and  while  this  is  practically  a  first-class  carriage  by 
day,  at  night  it  develops,  under  the  skilful  necro- 
mancy of  the  "  coloured  person  "  charged  with  this 
duty,  into  a  series  of  entirely  commodious  sleeping 


60  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

berths,  stretched  in  one  of  which  the  traveller 
slumbers  well  enough  through  the  dark  hours. 
If  a  nervous  temperament,  he  may  shudder  to 
observe  that  the  rails  are  merely  fastened  down 
with  staple-heads  to  the  sleepers ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  these  sleepers  are  very  thickly  planted 
in  the  ballast,  and  the  fish-joints  are  strong  and 
good. 

The  American  luggage  system,  as  is  generally 
known,  is  perfect  in  its  way.  So  soon  as  you 
have  "  checked "  your  impedimenta  by  seeing  the 
official  hitch  brass  tickets  upon  the  several  boxes 
and  trunks,  the  exact  duplicates  of  which  he  hands 
to  you,  all  care  is  over.  As  you  approach  your 
destination  an  "  express-man,"  perambulating  the 
long  carriage,  will  make  note  of  your  hotel,  or 
residence,  take  the  brass  tickets,  for  which  he 
hands  you  a  receipt,  and  your  belongings  will  then 
be  delivered  almost  as  quickly  as  the  carriage  or 
omnibus  can  deposit  yourself.  Under  such  arrange- 
ments it  was  not  fatiguing  or  difficult  to  make  the 
run  from  Niagara  Falls  to  Washington,  something 
like  550  miles  in  distance.  The  first  portion  of 
this  journey  was  performed  in  daylight,  and  re- 
vealed a  district  resembling  the  Ontario  region, 
and  naturally  enough,  since  this  part  of  New  York 
State  lies  along  the  southern  shore  of  the  lake. 
But  you  could  note  a  difference  between  the 
comparatively  old  settlements  and  the  new,  by 
the  absence  of  tree  stumps  from  the  fields,  and 
the  fact  that  those  fields  were  everywhere  being 
manured    for    the    autumn    and    winter    sowings,   a 


AMERICAN  SOIL.  61 

necessity   to    which   Canada,   with   her   unexhausted 
soil,  has  not  yet  generally  come. 

Our  train  ran  along  the  Erie  Canal  by  Rochester, 
famous  for  flour-mills  and  spirit-rapping  ;  by  Canan- 
daigua,  known  for  its  pretty  lake,  1(5  miles  in 
length  ;  by  Elmira,  busy  in  manufacturing  steel  rails 
and  boilers  for  locomotives,  and  Troy,  which  hardly 
evokes  the  reminiscences  of  its  classical  namesake. 
Night  fell  as  we  entered  the  picturesque  valley  of 
the  Susquehanna  River  and  ran  down  by  the  dee}) 
Seneca  Lake,  and  its  still  stream  glittering  under 
an  almost  full  moon.  Harrisburg,  enshrining  the 
name  and  memory  of  one  John  Harris,  who  founded 
it  in  1735,  was  traversed  shortly  after  midnight, 
and  with  dawn  we  come  into  a  region  familiarised 
by  recollections  of  the  Secession  War,  for  here  lay 
Hanover,  with  the  dreadful  held  of  Gettysburg  not 
far  off,  and  York,  reached  about  G  a.m. — on  the 
southern  border  of  Pennsylvania — situated  upon  ^ 
Cordorus  Creek,  which  was  occupied  for  some  time 
by  the  Confederate  Army.  Shortly  afterwards  the 
train  entered  Maryland,  the  coloured  population 
largely  increasing  by  this  time  in  the  villages  and 
farms  on  either  side  of  the  track.  At  Baltimore, 
where  the  Patapsco  River  approaches  Chesapeake 
Bay,  and  makes  the  well-known  port,  there  was  a 
stop  for  breakfast,  and  then  we  ran  forty-four  miles 
in  forty-eight  minutes  into  the  administrative  capital 
of  the  United  States,  the  very  handsome  and  agree- 
able city  of  Washington. 

In    point     of    public    gardens,    parks,    and    trees, 
planted   along   the    streets,    Washington    is   specially 


62  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

and  nobly  embellished.  Planes,  sycamores,  limes, 
ehesnuts,  and  American  elms,  set  in  double  rows 
along  almost  every  thoroughfare,  give  the  city  a 
green  and  umbrageous  beauty  hardly  seen  elsewhere. 
It  seems  a  pity  that  such  charming  boulevards  and 
avenues  should  be  distinguished  merely  by  letters 
of  the  alphabet,  and  the  cross  streets  only  numbered. 
In  regard  of  civic  and  urban  nomeclature,  however, 
the  American  imagination  appears  to  have  recoiled 
in  despair  from  the  task  of  christening  towns  and 
streets,  and  while  the  latter  are  lettered  and 
numbered,  the  former  either  reproduce  a  foreign 
title — Syracuse,  Utica,  Ithaca,  Cairo,  Delhi,  and 
the  like — or  preserve  an  old  Indian  word,  or  glorify 
some  otherwise  forgotten  citizen.  Yet,  already, 
historical  recollections,  sombre  and  glorious,  are 
numerous  enough  about  Washington  to  suggest 
appellations  for  her  spacious  ways. 

Take  only  the  quarter  where  these  lines  are 
written,  that  of  the  Arlington  Hotel.  We  occupy 
the  apartments  where  Charles  Sumner  passed  the 
closing  days  of  his  patriotic  life.  Near  at  hand, 
at  the  corner  of  the  park,  stands  the  little  red  house 
where  the  assassins  tried  to  kill  Minister  Seward 
on  the  same  night  when  President  Lincoln  was 
done  to  death.  Not  far  off  is  the  railway  station 
in  which  President  Garfield  received  a  mortal 
wound  from  his  cruel  murderer — the  spot  is  de- 
signated by  a  silver  star  let  into  the  floor  of  the 
waiting-room — and  the  statues  of  Jackson,  of  Farra- 
gut,  and  other  heroes  of  the  Republic  gleam  through 
the   leaves    of   the    maple    trees,   and    might    most 


AMERICAN  SOIL.  63 

worthily  give  names  to  the  wide  ways  adjoining. 
In  the  same  vicinity  is  a  whole  group  of  noble 
buildings,  including  the  Treasury,  the  Pension 
Office,  and  the  War,  Navy,  and  State  Department-. 
Far  and  wide  over  the  green  expanse  of  the  cits- 
tower  the  dome  of  the  Capitol,  and  the  tall  obelisk 
built  up  to  the  imperishable  memory  of  George 
Washington;  while  the  "White  House" — where  I 
have  just  had  the  honour  of  a  special  audience 
and  a  very  interesting  conversation  with  President 
Harrison — rises  near  the  Treasury,  the  heart  and 
centre  of  the  Great  Commonwealth. 

The  simplicity  of  American  State  is  well  illus- 
trated by  the  utter  absence  of  any  formality  or 
ceremony  in  and  about  the  precincts  of  the  official 
abode  of  the  President.  The  executive  Mansion, 
or  "  White  House,"  stands  west  of  the  splendid 
edifice  of  the  Treasury.  It  is  in  the  Ionic  style, 
having  several  porticoes.  The  facade  is  170  feet 
long,  and  is  occupied  on  the  ground  floor  by  the 
reception  and  representation  rooms.  On  the  upper 
floors  are  the  offices  and  private  apartments  of  the 
President.  Its  foundation-stone  was  laid  in  1792, 
and  the  first  President  who  tenanted  it  was  Adams, 
in  1800.  In  1814  it  was  burned  by  the  English, 
but  was  rebuilt  in  1818.  The  grounds,  which  arc 
laid  out  in  gardens,  occupy  about  seventy-five  acres, 
of  which  twenty  are  railed  in  as  the  President's 
private  demesne. 

Here,  then,  is  the  central  spot  of  this  vast 
Republic,  the  very  adytum  of  its  civic  life,  and 
vet    no   i^uard    of   honour,   no    sentinel,  no    sign    oi 


64  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

special  import,  not  even  a  Washington  police- 
man, marks  its  character,  or  protects  the  gate- 
way. Anybody  may  enter ;  everybody  who  wishes 
does  enter — in  carriage,  hack-cab,  or  on  foot — and 
will  no  more  be  questioned  in  passing  through 
the  gardens  and  mounting  the  marble  steps  than 
if  it  were  an  American  Army  and  Navy  Store. 
True,  there  is  an  usher,  in  evening  dress,  at  the 
door,  but  he  seems  put  there  merely  to  open  and 
shut  it  for  convenience  of  citizens,  who  do  not 
even  take  off  their  hats  on  entering  unless  they 
please,  and  unless  the  weather  be  very  sultry. 
These,  however,  must  at  least  wait  for  an  audience 
until  the  President  has  finished  with  his  morning 
council,  except  on  certain  days  of  the  week,  when 
he  descends  to  the  corridor,  and  shakes  hands  with 
all  who  like  to  grasp  the  presidential  palm.  This 
corridor,  which  is  shut  off  from  the  hall  by  a 
screen  of  stained  glass,  has  no  exceptional  grace 
or  grandeur.  A  score  of  private  houses  in  London 
and  a  hundred  hotels  in  great  cities  could  be  named 
which  would  dwarf  it  to  insignificance.  Indifferently 
lighted,  it  conceals  rather  than  reveals  the  portraits 
of  the  bygone  presidents  and  wives  of  presidents 
suspended  in  gilt  frames  along  the  wall.  From  this 
corridor  open  three  principal  rooms.  The  first  is 
the  "  Green  Parlour,"  a  moderate-sized  apartment, 
with  green  furniture  and  hangings,  where  you  see 
the  kindly,  rugged  features  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
Jackson's  strong  countenance,  and  Washington's 
well-known  face  among  the  pictures.  Next  to  this 
is  the  "  Blue  Parlour,"  an  oval  "  piece,"  small,  but 


AMERICAN  SOIL.  65 

not  inelegant ;  and  thirdly,  the  "  Red  Dining  Room." 
At  the  baek  of  these  is  a  ball  or  reception  salon, 
comely,  but  not  costly,  nor  in  the  least  degree 
magnificent.  Above  are  chambers  which  hold  the 
attention  more.  One  is  that  in  which  President 
Lincoln  habitually  held  his  councils,  and  from  the 
bow-window  you  look  far  away  over  the  pretty 
gardens  and  the  park  to  the  glimmering  current  of 
the  Potomac  and  the  distant  uplands  of  Virginia. 

How  often  in  the  great  and  fateful  war  must  the 
gaze  of  "Honest  Abe"  have  wandered  southward 
towards  Richmond,  which  his  armies  were  not  able 
to  reach  for  three  long  and  bloody  years.  I  seemed 
to  feel  the  shadow  of  that  prodigious  anxiety  still 
lingering  about  the  beautiful  prospect  in  all  those 
heavy  masses  of  gloom  cast  on  the  sward  by  the 
maples,  and  all  those  dark  patches  falling  from  the 
flying  clouds.  Moreover,  in  this  apartment,  at  this 
very  plain  green  table,  sitting  in  this  same  old- 
fashioned  and  common-looking  armchair,  the  good 
captain  and  leader  of  his  people  signed  the  memor- 
able Proclamation  which  for  ever  broke  the  fetters 
of  the  slave,  and  redeemed  at  one  noble  stroke  the 
glory  of  the  conflict,  and  the  much-suffering  negro. 
Crowds  of  the  joyous,  pleasant,  chatty  negroes  are 
passing  under  the  historic  window.  Washington  is 
as  full  of  them  as  a  strawberry  garden  is  of  black- 
birds ;  and  the  plain  chamber  seemed  indeed  in 
become  a  temple,  and  its  air  to  be  full  of  the  true 
incense  of  the  golden  "  thurifers "  of  liberty,  when 
one  reflected  upon  the  victory  of  the  great  and  free 
nation    over    its    first    historical    danger,   and    upon 


66  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

that    epoch-making  decree    which  "  ransomed    the 
African." 

A  few  steps  lead  from  Abraham  Lincoln's  cus- 
tomary council  chamber  to  an  inner  official  apartment, 
where  at  this  hour  President  Harrison  was  sitting  in 
debate  with  certain  of  his  ministers.  On  receiving 
my  card  he  did  me  the  signal  honour  to  receive  me 
at  once  in  the  inner  Council  Chamber.  Rising 
from  a  group  of  Secretaries  of  State,  the  President 
approached  with  a  cordial  welcome  to  Washington 
on  his  lips — a  courteous,  kindly,  shrewd,  and  busi- 
ness-stamped gentleman,  of  middle  height  or  less, 
with  light  hair,  beginning  to  ' "  catch  the  snow," 
simple  in  style  as  were  his  surroundings.  After 
some  very  friendly  words,  our  dialogue  took  some 
such  shape  as  this : — 

"  You  are  pleased,  I  hope,  with  the  States." 

"  Who  could  fail  to  be  pleased,  Mr.  President, 
having  eyes  to  see  and  mind  to  appreciate?  Any 
reasonable  Englishman  must  be  proud  and  glad,  I 
think,  to  be  able  to  wander  over  so  splendid  a 
country,  and  never  feel  himself  otherwise  than  at 
home  in  this  your  Transatlantic  England." 

"  We  know  you  have  always  been  and  are  a  true 
friend  to  America." 

"  I  consider  myself  half  an  American.  Two  of 
my  children  bear  the  American  names  of  '  Emerson  ' 
and  '  Channing  ; '  my  late  wife  was  an  American.  I 
represent  in  a  very  humble  way  the  bond  of  blood 
and  language  which  I  hope  will  grow  ever  stronger 
and  closer  between  the  countries." 

"  We  hope  that,  too,  most  sincerely ;  and  my  son, 


A  ME  RICA  X  SOIL.  67 

who  has  just  returned  from  England,  assures  me 
that  good-will  and  good-wishes  towards  America  are 
more  and  more  felt  in  England." 

"  I  venture  to  say,  sir,  that  that  is  so.  A  con- 
stantly increasing  number  of  Englishmen — and  1 
trust  and  believe  of  Americans  also — ardently  hope 
that  no  question  will  ever  again  arise  between  us 
which  cannot  and  will  not  be  settled  by  Reason  and 
by  Right — the  only  proper  arbiters  between  two  such 
peoples." 

"  That  ought  to  be  so,  and  will  be  so,  if  we  make 
proper  mutual  allowances  for  each  other.  What  has 
impressed  you  chiefly  in  your  journeys  here?" 

"  The  '  magnificent  distances  '  Mr.  President !  I 
see  a  large  terrestrial  globe  standing  by  your  chair. 
It  makes  me  think  rather  ruefully  of  Dr.  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes'  line,  when  he  describes  the 
Western  giant  as 

'Twirling  the  spotted  globe  to  find  us.'  " 

"Ah!  we  do  not  measure  Great  Britain  by  her 
acres  !  She  also  is  really  so  large  that  we  never  could 
have  remained  under  one  Government  even  if  the 
War  of  Independence  had  not  happened." 

"Yes!  Still  it  is  sad  to  think  that  that  stupid 
affair  of  the  Boston  Tea  Chests  was  caused  by  a 
majority  of  a  single  vote  in  the  House  of  ('ominous." 

"Well,  if  we  had  remained  one  people  geographi- 
cally, you  would  have  had  to  be  governed  from 
Washington,  perhaps;  since  we  are  preponderant  in 
numbers  and  area." 

"As  to  that,  sir,  you   must    put    Canada   and   our 


68  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Colonies  in  the  scale,  and  India.  However,  I  hope 
that,  together,  England  and  America  will  some  day 
dictate  peace,  in  the  interests  of  universal  humanity, 
to  the  world,  and  that  the  language  of  Shakespeare 
wTill  become  that  of  the  globe." 

President  Harrison  smiled,  and  said  gently  he 
hoped  such  a  day  would  arrive  ;  whereupon,  after  some 
further  general  remarks,  the  pleasant  interview 
terminated. 

Yet,  if  the  White  House  is  modest  in  its  own 
character  and  in  that  also  of  its  distinguished  occu- 
pants— who  address  Emperors  and  Kings  as  "  my 
good  friend,"  and  are  so  addressed  by  them — the 
Capitol  is  grand  enough  even  for  the  great  Republic. 
Among  the  many  imposing  buildings  of  Washington, 
this  huge  edifice  is  the  handsomest  and  largest  in 
the  town,  and,  indeed,  on  the  whole  American 
Continent.  It  is  situated  on  Capitol  Hill,  a  mile 
from  the  Potomac  River,  and  has  a  length  over  all 
of  750  feet,  with  a  depth  of  120  feet,  and  wings  of 
140  feet.  It  covers  an  area  of  3i  acres.  The 
materials  used  are  light  yellow  stone  for  the  centre, 
and  white  marble  for  the  wings.  The  buildings 
face  eastwards.  In  front  of  them  stretches  a  wide 
space,  and  beyond  is  a  well-laid-out  park.  The 
structure  was  commenced  in  1821,  and  the  wings 
were  added  to  it  in  1851.  The  corner-stone  of 
the  structure  was  laid  by  Daniel  Webster.  It  was 
finished,  inclusive  of  the  new  dome,  in  1865,  at  a 
cost  of  15,000,000  dollars.  The  main  front  is  orna- 
mented with  three  grand  porticoes  of  Corinthian 
columns.     The    centre   is    approachod   by    a    flight 


AMERICAN  SOIL.  69 

of  stairs,  embellished  with  statues  by  Persico  and 
Greenough.  On  the  esplanade  towers  the  colossal 
statue  of  Washington.  The  building  is  surmounted 
by  a  lofty  iron  dome,  on  which  stands  a  statue  of 
Liberty,  19i  feet  high.  Tall  marble  statues  are 
to  the  right  and  left  of  the  entrance.  You  enter 
through  bronze  doors,  evidently  imitated  from  those 
of  Ghiberti,  at  Florence,  into  the  Rotunda.  These 
doors  illustrate  the  life  of  Columbus  and  the  dis- 
covery of  America.  The  rotunda  is  96  feet  wide 
and  108  feet  in  height.  Marble  bas-reliefs  over  the 
doors  and  paintings  on  the  wall  illustrate  American 
history.  The  dome  rises  finely  above,  with  a  painted 
frieze  and  pierced  clere-stories.  Through  the  western 
door  of  the  Rotunda,  and  at  the  end  of  that  corridor, 
is  the  Congress  Library  in  three  large  halls,  all 
thoroughly  fireproof.  They  contain,  people  said, 
above  050,000  books,  pamphlets,  brochures,  &c. 
The  north  door  of  the  Rotunda  leads  into  the  Senate 
House ;  semicircular,  commodious,  practical  in  every 
detail.  But  in  the  corridor,  is  the  door  leading  into 
the  Supreme  Court,  the  highest  tribunal  in  America. 
The  Chamber  of  the  Senate  is  114  feet  by  82  feet, 
and  30  feet  in  height;  an  iron  roof  with  stained 
lights,  and  galleries  seating  IOOO  citizens. 

But  the  Supreme  Court  most  interests  the  in- 
telligent stranger.  Here  is  the  real  "omphalos" 
of  the  Republic,  the  metacentre  which  keeps  the 
Ship  of  State  balanced  on  a  safe  keel,  the  Power 
which  is  above  State-rights,  Congress,  Senate,  and 
all.  Persons  who  rashly  quote  the  federation  of  tin- 
Sovereign  States  of  America  as  a  precedent  for  all 


7o  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

sorts  of  perilous  experiments  with  older  institutions 
in  other  lands  forget  this  Supreme  Court,  which 
keeps  the  stars  of  the  Spangled  Banner  together 
by  a  force  akin  to  gravitation,  silent,  secret,  and 
irresistible.  It  is  easier  to  admire  that  great  inven- 
tion of  the  fathers  of  the  Republic  than  to  imitate 
it  elsewhere.  Meantime  it  is  somewhat  trying  for 
a  patriotic  Englishman  to  wander  round  the  ample 
floor  of  the  Rotunda  of  the  Washington  Capitol. 
The  pictures  adorning  its  walls  recall  principally 
British  disasters.  Here  is  my  Lord  Cornwallis,  in 
scarlet  and  gold,  sadly  surrendering  his  sword ;  and 
there  Commodore  Perry  is  gaily  and  gallantly  sinking 
his  Majesty's  ships  upon  Lake  Erie ;  and  elsewhere 
you  shall  gaze  on  the  untoward  incidents  of  Tieonde- 
roga  and  Lexington  Ford.  It  cannot  be  denied  that 
a  promenade  about  the  halls  and  corridors  of  the 
imposing  structure,  where  the  American  eagle  keeps 
its  legislative  eyrie,  is  calculated  to  convey  the 
sensation  known  here  as  "  twisting  the  tail  of  the 
British  Lion." 

Under  the  auspices  of  General  Greely,  of  Arctic 
fame — the  hero  of  the  desperate  adventure  in  the  icy 
North — I  visited  what  is  called  "  the  Signal  Office," 
where  the  meteorological  work  of  the  States  is  done. 
Here — supervised  and  harmonised  by  the  General — 
come  together  those  reports  from  all  parts  of  the 
Continent,  which  enable  the  "  clerks  of  the  weather," 
employed  by  Brother  Jonathan,  to  send  word  of  those 
storms  which  come  only  too  often  upon  our  shores 
across  the  Atlantic.  The  system,  and  its  equipments 
and  appliances,  are  creditably  complete,  and  we  were 


AMERICAN  SOIL.  71 

able  to  trace  the  history  of  a  storm  which  had  just 
ravaged  the  eastern  seaboard,  from  its  birthplace  in 
the  West  Indian  islands  to  its  howling  disappear- 
ance off  Cape  Cod.  Telegraphic  communication 
with  Bermuda  is  greatly  needed  to  make  the  net- 
work of  "storm-catchers"  complete.  That  affected, 
mariners,  farmers,  and  the  world  in  general  would 
almost  always  know  what  kind  of  time  was  coming. 
The  institution  possesses  a  perfect  record  of  the 
weather  all  over  the  continent  of  North  America 
during  the  past  fifteen  years.  It  ought  to  be 
denominated  the  "  Temple  of  the  Winds." 

Washington,  Sept.  12,  1889. 


CHAPTEK   VI. 

MEN    AND    CITIES. 

From  Washington  to  Philadelphia  is  an  easy  run 
through  the  green  country  drained  into  Chesapeake 
Bay  by  many  sylvan  streams.  Heavy  rains  had 
flooded  the  low-lying  farmsteads  around  Baltimore 
and  northward — so  that  many  fields  of  maize, 
tomato,  and  melon  were  lying  drowned  in  the 
too  abundant  tribute  of  the  Delaware  and  its 
confluent  channels.  The  negro  population — which 
rapidly  diminishes  as  you  come  north  from  Mary- 
land— looked  positively  "  blue-black  "  in  the  chilly 
weather  and  amongst  the  damp  enclosures.  There 
are  plenty  of  coloured  waiters  and  "  helps,"  of  course, 
at  the  north ;  but  the  sun-loving  Sambo  is  evidently 
much  depayse  there,  and  naturally  gravitates  to  the 
warmer  States. 

What  will  be  the  future  of  that  vast  dark  alien 
population  forms  one  of  the  great  puzzling  problems 
for  the  American  Republic.  From  time  to  time 
sanguinary  collisions  between  blacks  and  whites 
occur,  and  the  diminishing  number  of  half-breeds 
proves  that  "  miscegenation  "  will  never  prevail  to 
settle  the  matter.  Immensely  fecund  among  them- 
selves, although  unskilful   in   rearing  children,  the 


MEN  AND    CITIES.  73 

sons  of  Ham  are  seriously  multiplying  in  the  South, 
where  in  some  districts  they  quite  swamp  the  white 
vote.  Will  they  absorb  and  altogether  possess 
certain  regions?  Will  there  some  day  happen  a 
Black  Exodus  to  Africa,  or  to  Mexico,  or  to  South 
America?  Free  as  birds,  lazy  as  pigs,  joyous  as 
crickets,  the  negroes  darken  all  the  South  with 
their  political  presence,  and  enliven  it  by  their 
inborn  cheerfulness.  What  an  army  another  Tous- 
saint  TOuverture  might  raise  among  them  with 
which  to  conquer  an  Ebony  Kingdom  on  the  Gold 
Coast ! 

Philadelphia  is  a  truly  splendid  city,  and  covers 
more  ground  than  New  York,  Chicago,  or  any  of  its 
greatest  sisters.  There  are  950  miles  of  paved  streets 
there,  the  busiest  and  longest  being  "  Market,"  up 
and  down  which,  while  London  is  merely  talk- 
ing about  "electric  cars,"  those  vehicles,  silently 
and  safely  propelled  by  batteries,  daily  carry  scores 
of  thousands  of  citizens.  Nor  have  we  anywhere 
in  England  a  Town  Hall  nearly  as  magnificent  as 
the  huge  pile  of  white  marble,  reared  in  Re- 
naissance style,  which  is  called  "The  Public 
Buildings,"  and  glorifies  the  corner  of  Broad  and 
Market  Streets.  It  contains  the  municipal  offices, 
law  courts,  &c,  and  measures  4863  feet  by  170 
feet,  being  almost  a  square,  while  its  tower  when 
completed  will  be  535  feet  high.  It  covers  an 
area  of  about  4h  acres,  without  including  the  court- 
yard in  the  centre  of  200  feet  square.  (Jirard 
College  is  another  magnificent  building  of  white 
marble,  in  the  Corinthian  style,  imitating  the  Par- 


74  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

thenon  at  Athens,  erected  out  of  Stephen  Girard's 
munificent  gift  of  2,000,000  dollars  to  provide 
gratuitous  instruction  and  support  for  destitute 
orphans.  Theology  is  rigorously  excluded  from 
its  lectures,  and  no  clergyman,  priest,  or  missionary 
is  allowed  to  set  foot  within  it,  according  to  the 
testamentary  conditions  of  the  founder. 

In  Lsetitia  Street  is  Penn's  cottage,  built  before 
Penn's  arrival  in  the  settlement,  and  truly  the 
historic  Quaker  might  be  proud  of  the  city  sprung 
up  around  it.  In  a  court  on  the  south  side  of 
Chestnut  Street  is  Carpenters'  Hall,  the  meeting- 
place  of  the  first  Congress  of  the  United  Colonies ; 
but  Independence  Hall,  between  Fifth  and  Sixth 
Streets,-  is  justly  considered  the  most  interesting 
building  in  Philadelphia.  It  has  brilliant  historical 
associations,  and  several  of  the  rooms  contain  still 
the  very  furniture  of  the  time  when  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  was  there  made.  In  front  of 
it  stands  Bailey's  statue  of  Washington,  and  at  the 
back  is  Independence  Square,  laid  out  as  a  small 
park. 

All  these,  and  many  other  notable  sights  in  the 
Pennsylvania  capital,  we  had  the  good  fortune 
to  study,  under  the  auspices  of  one  of  the  best 
known,  as  he  is  also  one  of  the  most  j^Wic- 
spirited  and  liberal  of  Philadelphia  citizens — 
Mr.  G.  W.  Childs,  proprietor  of  the  Public  Ledger, 
a  journal  eminent  amid  its  contemporaries  not 
alone  for  literary  talent  and  political  independence, 
but  for  a  dignity  and  propriety  in  tone  and  in  con- 
tents by  no  means  universal  among  the  American 


nil  i.adki.i'iii  \  :    iNin:i'i:Ni>r.N<  i:    n  \  i  1 


MEN  AND    CITIES.  75 

press.  For  twenty .  years  the  bosom  friend  and 
neighbour  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant — the  famous  soldier 
President  of  the  Republic — Mr.  Childs  enjoys  an 
influence  natural  to  his  experience,  wealth,  and 
patriotism,  and  it  was  no  secret  that  Mr.  Wana- 
maker,  now  the  Postmaster-General  in  President 
Harrison's  Cabinet,  and  proprietor  of  the  most 
immense  "  universal  providing  store "  even  in  the 
States,  owed  his  portfolio  largely  to  this  gentle- 
man's recommendations.  The  astounding  establish- 
ment  of  the  Minister  employs  4000  hands,  covers 
18 5  acres  of  ground,  and  is  worked  by  the  most 
elaborate  organisation.  It  must  be  almost  a  re- 
laxation, indeed,  after  governing  "  Wanamaker's," 
at  Philadelphia,  to  take  in  hand  the  business  of 
conducting  "  Uncle  Sam's  "  postal  system. 

Yet  it  was  not  to  any  superb  public  edifice,  or  to 
any  famed  historical  spot,  or  even  to  Wanamaker's, 
the  mighty  and  manifold — where  a  whole  hall,  full 
of  revolving  wheels  and  Hying  wires,  was  buzzing 
with  countless  cartridges  of  money  coming  up,  and 
of  endless  change  going;  down — to  none  of  these 
were  my  earliest  steps  bent  on  arriving  in  Phila- 
delphia. In  a  suburb  of  the  city,  called  Camden, 
beyond  the  broad  Delaware,  which,  with  the  Schuyl- 
kill, or  "Hidden  Stream,"  bathes  her  long  wharfs, 
resides  that  original  and  grandly  gifted  poet,  Wall 
Whitman,  assuredly  one  of  the  chief  personages  of 
American  literature  in  his  own  strange  and  unre- 
strained, albeit  most  musical  and  majestic  style.  It 
is  held,  no  doubt,  in  some  quarters  an  eccentricity 
to  admire  Walt  Whitman  ;    in   others  even   an   im- 


76  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

propriety ;  but  it  may  be  doubted  if  those  who  so 
lightly  dub  this  Tyrtaeus  of  America  "  rugged  "  or 
"  immoral "  have  really  read,  with  close  and  due 
study,  his  remarkable  pages,  or  are  competent  to 
judge  of  the  finest  and  most  daring  ranges  of  poetic 
art.  To  him  who  writes  these  words,  the  Poet  of 
"  Drum-Taps  "  and  of  "  The  Voyage  to  India  "  has 
long  seemed  a  singer  nobly  and  perfectly  native  to 
the  New  World,  profoundly  philosophical,  and  one 
to  be  certainly  regarded  with  reverence  and  affec- 
tion, for  his  humanity,  his  insight,  his  faith,  his 
courage,  and  the  clear,  sonorous,  and  ofttimes  ex- 
quisite melody  of  his  rhymeless,  but  never  un- 
rhythmical, dithyrambs.  No  living  singer  has  ever 
composed  any  English  lines  more  divinely  musical 
than  those  of  the  "  Invocation,"  which  begin, 
"  Come,  lovely  and  soothing  Death."  No  poet- 
philosopher  has  ever  proclaimed  loftier  veracities 
of  life  and  religion  than  could  be  gleaned,  thickly 
and  richly,  from  "  The  Leaves  of  Grass  ;  "  and,  as  to 
the  charge  of  impropriety,  it  is  often  made  by  people 
who  have  not  understood  his  main  thesis  and  state- 
ment, "  I  swear  I  am  no  more  ashamed  of  the  body 
than  I  am  ashamed  of  the  soul." 

At  all  events,  for  me  Walt  Whitman  has  long 
appeared  the  embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  American 
growth  and  glory — the  natural  minstrel  of  her 
splendid  youth — the  chief  modern  perceiver  of  the 
joy  and  gladness  in  existence  too  long  forgotten  or 
forbidden;  and,  of  all  men  in  Philadelphia,  he  it 
was  whom  I  most  desired  to  see  and  to  thank  for 
my  own  share,  at  least,  in  the  comfort  and  wisdom 


MEN  AND    CITIES.  77 

of  his  verse,  which,  for  one  who  can  read  it  with 
sympathy,  has  the  freshness  of  the  morning  wind 
blowing  in  the  pines,  the  sweetness  of  the  sea-air 
tumbling  the  wave-crests. 

You  go  down  the  long  Market  Street  in  an 
electric  car,  which  is  driven  from  a  wire  overhead, 
the  connector-rod  and  the  wheels  emitting  Hashes 
of  blue  fire  all  the  way,  which  seem,  however,  to 
do  nobody  any  harm.  These  novel  tramcars  are 
checked,  stopped,  and  started  again  with  the  utmost 
certainty  by  a  button  and  a  string,  and  the  over- 
head wire  illuminates  the  vehicle  as  well  as 
drives  it. 

Arrived  at  the  edge  of  the  Delaware  River  by 
the  aid  of  this  yoked  and  tamed  lightning,  a  pro- 
digious ferry-steamer  receives  passengers,  carts,  wag- 
gons— anything  and  everything — and  puffs  across 
to  the  other  bank,  amid  multitudinous  small  and 
large  craft.  Here  is  New  Jersey,  where,  for  a  while, 
nobody  could  be  found  who  knew  the  habitat  of 
America's  lyric  veteran.  But,  at  last,  an  ancient 
flyman  was  discovered  who  was  acquainted  with  the 
abode  of  "the  old  poet,"  and  many  a  winding  way 
and  devious  plank-road  brought  us  in  the  end  to 
an  obscure  street,  where  our  modern  Tyrtanis  re- 
sided. The  humble  tenement  which  represented 
the  poet's  " bower "  stood  between  two  retail  stores, 
and  was  about  the  most  unlikely  spot  in  the  world 
to  search  in  for  a  bard.  Vet  a  sweet-faced  woman. 
darning  stockings  and  swinging  too  and  fro  in  a 
rocking-chair,  assured  me  that  "Mi-.  Whitman" 
was  truly  within,  and  a  very  handsome  brown-faced 


78  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

boy  of  nineteen  in  shirt-sleeves  volunteered  to  call 
him.  Soon  the  famous  dithyrambist  descended 
the  stairs,  clad  in  a  light  holland  coat,  with  open 
shirt  ruffled  in  the  neck,  walking  very  lamely  with 
the  help  of  a  stick,  but  certainly  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  old  men  ever  beheld,  with  his  clear  keen 
eyes,  sculptured  profile,  flowing  silver  hair  and 
beard,  and  mien  of  lofty  content  and  independence. 
In  a  very  few  minutes,  I  may  venture  to  say,  we 
were  like  old  friends.  I  told  him  how  he  was 
honoured  and  comprehended  by  many  and  many 
an  Englishman,  who  knew  how  to  distinguish  great 
work  from  little,  in  ancient  or  modern  tongues.  I 
told  him  how  many  among  us  found  the  freedom 
of  the  broad  prairie  and  the  freshness  of  the  sea  in 
his  pages,  and  loved  them  for  their  large  humanity 
and  superb  forecasts  of  human  development.  The 
handsome  youth  fetched  down  the  "  Leaves  of 
Grass "  from  upstairs,  and  we  read  together  some 
of  the  lines  most  in  mind,  the  book  lying  upon 
the  old  poet's  knee,  his  large  and  shapely  hand 
resting  on  mine.  The  sweet-voiced  woman  dropped 
her  darning  needle  to  join  in  the  lyrical  and  ami- 
cable chat,  the  handsome  boy  lounged  and  listened 
at  the  doorway,  a  big  setter  laid  his  soft  muzzle  on 
the  master's  arm,  and  the  afternoon  grew  to  evening 
in  pleasant  interchange  of  thoughts  and  feelings. 
He  laughed  joyously  at  the  vastness  and  vitality 
of  this  Republic,  of  which  I  admiringly  spoke,  and 
said,  "  Yes,  we  are  truly — as  they  say  West — very 
'  numerious.'  " 

"  But   have   you   reverence  enough   among  your 


MEN  AXD    CITIES. 


79 


people?"  I  asked.  "Do  the  American  children 
respect  and  obey  their  parents  sufficiently,  and  arc 
the  common  people  grateful  enough  to  their  best 
men,  their  statesmen,  leaders,  teachers,  poets,  and 
'  betters  '  generally  ?  " 

"Allons,  comrade!"  Walt  Whitman  replied; 
"your  old  world  has  been  soaked  and  saturated 
in  reverentiality.  We  are  laying  here  in  America 
the  basements  and  foundation  rooms  of  a  new  era. 
And  we  are  doing  it,  on  the  whole,  pretty  well  and 
substantially.  By-and-by,  when  that  job  is  through, 
ire  will  look  after  the  steeples  and  pinnacles." 

He  bade  me  "  give  his  love  to  the  boys  in  London," 
such  as  cared  for  him.  Some  of  them,  he  said,  had 
been  "  very  good  to  him  in  past  days,  and  had  pulled 
him  out  of  a  quagmire."  But  there  was  no  tone  of 
complaint  in  his  cheery  manliness,  and  lie  looked 
the  picture  of  self-content  and  happy  old  age.  In  a 
strong  round  hand  he  inscribed  mv  name  in  the 
volume  we  had  discussed,  gave  me  some  precious 
pictures  of  himself  at  different  epochs  of  his  life, 
and  bade  me  farewell  with  an  affectionate  warmth 
which  will  never  be  forgotten. 

A  short  run  carries  a  wanderer  northwards  from 
Philadelphia  to  New  York  ;  but  long  before  Jersey 
City  is  reached,  the  lines  of  frame  tenements  abutting 
on  the  woodlands  and  marshes  tell  of  the  proximity 
of  the  great  city.  It  is  not  necessary  to  say  anything 
about  the  vast,  noisy,  restless,  stately,  business  Metro- 
polis of  the  Republic,  with  which  so  many  are 
perfectly  well  acquainted.  Paved  everywhere  with 
cobble-stones,  riddled  below  bv  tramways,  and  above 


80  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

by  "  elevated  "  railways,  pierced  and  permeated  with 
electric  wires,  and  full  all  day  and  all  night  of 
rattling,  pounding,  ponderous  cars,  waggons,  and 
cabs,  New  York  City  is  the  least  reposeful  place  in 
the  world,  and  wants  wood-pavement  everywhere,  if 
sleep  be  necessary  to  human  existence.  The  only 
quiet  spots  observed  in  Manhattan,  were  those  about 
the  handsome  and  tasteful  Central  Park,  whose  green 
knolls  and  shady  uplands  look  prettily  and  pleasantly 
enough  upon  the  Hudson  River  gliding  down  from 
West  Point  and  the  Palisades. 

On  one  of  the  most  commanding  points  of  this 
well-ordered  park,  whence  the  eye  could  range  far 
over  the  roofs  and  towers  of  the  city  in  one  direc- 
tion, and  away  to  the  hills  and  the  country  in  the 
other,  we  found  the  grave  of  Ulysses  Grant,  under 
the  fluttering  Stars  and  Stripes,-  guarded  by  a 
limping  veteran  of  the  Federal  Army.  The  chest 
or  "  casket,"  containing  the  remains  of  the  re- 
nowned General  and  President — foremost  among 
those  who  saved  the  Republic — could  be  discerned 
through  the  gilded  bars  of  the  little  mausoleum. 
It  was  nearly  hidden  in  a  mound  of  funeral  wreaths 
of  honour,  but  showed  the  name  and  date  of  demise 
of  the  illustrious  soldier.  It  is  the  intention  of 
the  New  York  citizens  to  raise  an  imposing  monu- 
ment here  to  the  immortal  memory  of  Grant,  and 
the  necessary  funds  have  already  been  collected  by 
public  subscription. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  make  at  New  York  the 
close  acquaintance  of  another,  and  hardly  less  re- 
nowned soldier  of  the  Republic,  General  Sherman — 


MEN  AXD    CITIES.  Si 

^ince,  alas !  dead;  nor  could  any  conversations  have 
been  more  interesting  than  those  in  which  he  did 
me  the  honour  to  describe  and  discuss,  among  many 
other  matters,  that  wonderful  and  memorable  march 
led  by  him,  which  pierced  the  Confederate  States  like 
the  thrust  of  a  rapier,  and  helped  largely  to  bring- 
about  the  collapse  of  "  Secession."  The  General  was 
evidently  and  justly  discontented  with  certain  criti- 
cisms which  have  appeared  in  England  from  a  high 
military  source,  upon  the  conduct  of  the  campaign. 
"We  had,"  he  said,  "to  create  armies  before  we 
could  use  them  in  the  established  and  scientific  way, 
and  it  is  unfair  and  illogical  to  judge  the  first  two 
years  of  our  war  as  if  we  had  been  commanding 
trained  and  seasoned  troops.  In  the  third  year  we 
had  regiments  to  lead  as  good  and  skilled  as 
commanding  officers  could  ask  for ;  and  to  the 
movements  then  made,  the  rules  of  military  science 
may  be  properly  applied." 

General  Sherman  spoke  of  the  quality  of  courage 
in  soldiers,  and  men  generally,  distinguishing  it 
impatiently  from  brutish  and  irrational  reckless- 
ness. "True  courage,"  he  said,  "is  founded  on 
presence  of  mind.  The  man  who,  in  the  face  of 
imminent  peril,  can  hold  up  his  hand,  and  count 
the  fingers  on  it  quite  calmly,  is  the  brave,  self-pos- 
sessed, serviceable  individual.  Moreover,  true  courage 
goes  with  unselfishness.  I  have  seen  an  officer 
fight  on  unflinchingly  in  my  presence,  bleeding 
from  many  wounds,  of  which  he  was  disdainfully 
heedless,  and,  in  later  life,  have  witnessed  the  same 
gentleman  turn  deadly  white  while  he  held  the  hand 


82  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

of  his  child,  that  a  surgeon  might  operate  for  some 
trifling  abscess."  Many  were  the  thrilling  episodes 
and  adventures  of  the  great  war  which  fell  in  fas- 
cinating recital  from  the  lips  of  General  Sherman, 
but  they  are  either  recorded  in  the  pages  of  his 
autobiography,  or  are  too  long  and  discursive  to  set 
down  here.  One  little  flash  of  humour  is,  perhaps, 
worth  preserving  from  all  the  war  talk  which  we 
enjoyed. 

"General  Thomas,"  said  he,  "junior  to  me  in 
rank,  but  senior  in  service,  was  a  stern  discipli- 
narian. He  had  received  many  complaints  about 
the  pilfering  and  plundering  committed  by  one  of 
his  brigades,  and,  being  resolved  to  put  this 
offence  down,  he  issued  some  very  strict  orders, 
menacing  with  death  any  who  should  transgress. 
The  brigade  in  question  wore  for  its  badge  an  acorn, 
in  silver  or  gold,  and  the  men  were  inordinately 
proud  of  this  distinctive  sign.  Several  cases  of 
disobedience  had  been  reported  to  the  General,  but 
the  evidence  was  never  strong  enough  for  decisive 
action;  until  one  day,  riding  with  an  orderly  dowm 
a  by-lane  outside  the  posts,  Thomas  came  full  upon 
an  Irishman,  who,  having  laid  aside  his  rifle,  with 
which  he  had  killed  a  hog,  was  busily  engaged  in 
skinning  the  animal  with  his  sword-bayonet,  so  as 
to  make  easy  work  with  the  bristles,  &c,  before 
cooking  some  pork-chops. 

"  '  Ah,'  cried  the  General,  '  you  rascal !  at  last  I 
have  caught  one  of  you  in  the  act.  There  is  no 
mistake  about  it  this  time,  and  I  will  make  an 
example  of  you,  sir ! ' 


MEN  AND    CITIES.  83 

"'Bedad!  General,  honey!'  said  the  Irishman, 
straightening  himself  up  and  coming  to  the  salute, 
'  it's  not  shootin'  me  that  you  ought  to  be  afther,  at 
all,  at  all,  but  rewardin'  me.' 

"'What  do  you  mean,  sir?'  exclaimed  General 
Thomas. 

"  '  Why,  your  honour  ! '  the  soldier  replied,  '  this 
disperate  baste  here  had  just  been  disicratin '  the 
rigimental  badge ;  and  so  I  was  forced  to  despatch 
'urn.  It's 'atin  the  acorns  that  I  faff /id  him  at/' 
Even  General  Thomas  was  obliged  to  laugh  at  this, 
and  the  soldier  saved  his  life  by  his  wit." 

General  Sherman  spoke  with  much  attachment  of 
many  English  officers,  his  friends,  and  recalled  with 
evident  pleasure  the  receptions  he  had  met  with  in 
English  garrisons  at  Gibraltar,  Malta,  and  elsewhere. 
Albeit  then  verging  on  his  seventieth  year,  the 
illustrious  leader  appeared  perfectly  hale,  strong,  and 
almost  fit,  if  necessary,  for  another  such  campaign, 
as  when,  at  the  head  of  that  tough  and  fearless 
column  of  Federal  troops,  he  disappeared  from 
sight  at  Atlanta,  to  turn  up  again,  irresistible  ami 
victorious,  under  the  ramparts  of  Savannah,  which 
fell  to  him  without  a  shot,  crowning  the  perfect 
success  of  the  memorable  march. 

New  York,  Sept.  20,  1689. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

BOSTON. 

Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Vermont,  and  the  sea- 
board States  comprising  New  England,  well  deserve 
that  name  in  regard  of  good  harbours,  busy  coasts, 
and  beautiful  inland  scenery.  In  leaving  New 
York  for  Boston,  by  what  is  called  the  "  Air-line 
Railway,"  the  traveller  journeys  along  the  northern 
shore  of  Long  Island  Sound,  and  passes  through 
a  score  of  towns  and  "  cities "  with  very  familiar 
names,  such  as  Chester,  Stamford,  Southport,  Bridge- 
port, Milford,  and  New  Haven.  This  last  is  an 
important  centre,  full  of  dark-foliaged  trees,  which 
have  given  it  the  title  of  "  Elm  City,"  and  famous 
as  containing  numerous  educational  institutions, 
among  which  is  Yale  College,  not  so  old  as 
Harvard  and  not  so  richly  endowed,  but  enjoying 
a  well-merited  reputation.  It  was  founded  in  1700. 
It  has  over  100  professors,  its  students  number- 
ing over  1000.  It  has  a  School  of  Fine  Arts,  a 
Law  School,  a  Medical,  Theological,  Scientific,  and 
Academic  Department ;  and  its  buildings  cover, 
including  ornamental  grounds,  over  nine  acres, 
among    the    most    important    of    them    being    the 

Library,  with   over    140,000  volumes.     Situated  at 

s4 


flOSTOiW  S5 

the  head  of  New  Haven  Bay,  the  largest  town  in 
Connecticut  and  a  port  of  entry,  New  Haven  is  a 
great  railway  centre,  and  has  a  considerable?  home 
and  foreign  commerce,  principally  with  the  West 
Indies.  Tts  manufactures  are  in  the  hardware  line. 
jewellery,  and  India  rubber.  When  the  railroad 
diverges  from  it,  we  plunge  into  a  charming  country 
on  the  way  to  Hartford  and  AVillimantic,  a  country 
resembling  that  around  Kendal  and  Ambleside,  with 
folded  verdant  hills,  pretty  lakes  and  lakelets  shut 
within  them,  and  streams  or  rivers  which  shine  as 
they  wind  under  the  dark  fir  woods,  or  emerge  into 
the  valleys  decked  with  maple  and  birch,  just  now 
beginning  to  put  on  their  autumn  glory  of  burning 
colours.  As  we  ascend  glimpses  are  again  obtained 
of  Long  Island  Sound,  and  of  many  a  smart-looking 
schooner — two,  three,  and  even  four  masted — in  the 
construction  of  which  American  shipbuilders  excel. 
Everywhere  the  "golden-rod,"  covering  the  deal- 
ings with  its  spikes  of  bright  blossom  ;  everywhere 
the  sumach,  with  dark-purple  seed-vessels  and 
crimson  leaves;  everywhere  the  frame-houses,  gaily 
painted  in  blue  and  red  and  saffron,  with  "piazzas" 
and  well-filled  barns;  everywhere,  apparently,  ac- 
tivity and  prosperity,  a  region — this  Yankee-land — 
of  solid  well-being. 

Then  we  arrive  at  Boston — "Hub  of  the  1'iii- 
vei'se  " — most  English-like  of  all  the  cities  of  the 
Eastern  States,  and  in  the  highest  degree  a  plea- 
sant, fair,  cultured,  and  stately  city.  Its  lower  and 
business  portions,  indeed,  curiously  resemble  those 
of  many  a  large  place  in  its  old  namesake;   but   the 


86  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

suburbs  are  prettier,  and  more  tastefully  laid  out  and 
built  than  almost  any  in  England.  Brookline,  es- 
pecially, and  the  long  vistas  of  villas  leading  to  Cam- 
bridge, and  thence  to  Mount  Auburn  and  along  the 
Charles  River,  have  a  singular  charm  by  reason  of 
the  variety  in  the  style  of  the  residences — half  stone 
or  brick,  and  half  wood — which  are  planted  on  well- 
kept  lawns,  not  shut  out  from  the  public  road  by 
iron  railings  or  walls,  as  with  us,  but  quite  open, 
and  presenting  the  most  charming  diversity  of  design 
and  colouring.  The  passenger  traffic  of  the  city  is 
all  done  by  cars — mainly  electric — which  hiss  and 
rattle  along,  always  crowded,  emitting  as  they  go 
sparks  of  white  light  from  their  rumbling  wheels, 
and  from  the  conducting-rod  which  runs  against  the 
overhead  wire.  For  five  cents  you  may  ride  any- 
where, but  there  is  no  law  against  overfilling,  and 
the  chances  are  that  you  will  have  to  stand  up 
all  the  way.  Far  and  wide  above  the  great  city 
shines  the  gilded  dome  of  the  State  House,  116  feet 
high ;  and  nobody  who  notices  its  happy  effect, 
overhanging  the  roofs  like  a  perpetual  sun,  could 
doubt  of  the  excellent  result  which  would  be 
achieved  if  London  were  to  cover  with  gold-leaf 
the  far  more  majestic  dome  of  St.  Paul's.  "  Boston 
Common,"  just  underneath  the  State  House,  is 
really  a  fine  but  small  park  and  ornamental  garden, 
upon  which  Beacon  Street  looks,  with  an  aspect 
irresistibly  recalling  the  familiar  front  of  Piccadilly 
and  the  Green  Park  at  home. 

No  handsomer  group  of  buildings,  hotels,  and  fine 
mansions    can   well    be   seen,  than  where  Boy  1st  on 


BOSTOX.  87 

Street  opens  out  in  front  of  the  Museum  of  Fine 
Arts;  and  there  is  a  graceful  climbing  plant — the 
Ampelopsis — which  drapes  almost  every  church, 
public  edifice,  and  private  abode  with  its  bright 
green  trails  of  thick  verdure — changing  to  a  rich 
russet  and  purple  as  "the  Fall"  approaches.  North 
of  the  spacious  city  soars  into  the  sky  the  ugly 
granite  obelisk,  marking  Bunker  Hill,  on  the  site 
of  the  battle  fought  June  17,  177o,  the  only 
monument,  perhaps,  ever  raised  to  commemorate 
a  defeat ;  for  it  is  matter  of  history,  as  is  well  con- 
ceded in  Dr.  Oliver  W.  Holmes'  delightful  ballad. 
"Grandmother's  Story,"  that  the  British  gained 
all  the  honours  of  the  day  in  that  memorable  con- 
flict. The  most  beautiful  of  the  many  cemeteries 
round  about  is  undoubtedly  Mount  Auburn,  with 
its  winding  walks  thronged  by  the  tombstones — all 
the  pretty  paths  named  after  different  flowers ;  its 
glorious  views  across  the  Charles  River;  its  groves 
of  stately  trees  and  parterres  of  bright  blossoms,  kept 
so  trimly  and  piously  as  to  render  the  spot  a  veri- 
table "Garden  of  Death;"  its  galaxy  of  great  names 
hallowing  the  air  —  Longfellow,  Story,  Winthrop, 
Adams,  Channing,  Margaret  Fuller,  Dana,  etc.  And 
the  most  interesting,  as  well  as,  on  the  whole,  most 
picturesque  of  its  suburbs,  is,  of  course,  Cambridge, 
the  home  of  Longfellow,  Holmes,  Lowell,  and  other 
noted  American  citizens,  and  the  seat  of  Harvard 
University.  It  was  first  called  Newtown,  and  settled 
soon  after  the  Boston  colony.  But  subsequently  chris- 
tened Cambridge  in  honour  of  the  University  in  Eng- 
land, where  John   Harvard,  the  founder  of  the  Fni- 


88  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

versity,  and  other  leaders  had  studied.  Established 
in  1636  by  Rev.  John  Harvard,  and  incorporated  in 
1650,  it  is  the  oldest  and  most  richly  endowed  seat 
of  learning  in  America.  Besides  its  collegiate  de- 
partment, it  has  departments  for  law,  medicine, 
science,  art,  and  theology.  It  has  220  teachers,  and 
about  1400  students.  The  University  lands  com- 
prise over  sixty  acres,  and  contain  twenty  or  more 
academical  buildings,  shaded  with  fine  elms  and 
other  trees.  The  noblest  is  Memorial  Hall,  in 
recollection  of  the  students  who  fell  in  the  war  of 
Secession.  It  is  large  and  well-proportioned,  and 
200  feet  high.  The  Great  Hall  is  its  principal 
apartment,  164  feet  by  60  feet.  In  the  vestibule 
are  the  tablets  of  the  students  (136)  who  died  for 
their  country.  The  Theatre  holds  1300  persons. 
The  University  Library,  a  Gothic  building  known  as 
Gore  Hall,  in  form  of  a  Latin  cross,  has  a  groined 
roof  35  feet  high,  and  possesses  about  200,000  books, 
while  the  University  contains  about  100,000  more 
in  other  detached  halls.  The  governing  bodv  of  the 
University  consists  of  one  president  and  six  fellows, 
and  a  board  of  overseers,  who  meet  in  University 
Hall.  There  are  forty-seven  professorships.  The 
course  extends  over  four  years,  and  the  great  insti- 
tution is  ruled  by  a  dignitary,  Dr.  Charles  Eliot, 
super-eminently  qualified  by  his  learning,  suavity, 
strength  of  character,  and  devotion,  for  the  high 
charge  which  he  bears  amid  universal  popularity 
and  esteem. 

Tt    was    our    privilege  to    become  the   guests    of 
President  Eliot  at  his  pleasant  official  abode  in  the 


BOSTON.  89 

centre  of  the  American  Oxford,  and  in  this  way  a 
very  ample  and  agreeable  acquaintance  was  made 
with  Harvard  men,  manners,  and  systems.  But 
Boston  and  its  environs  contained  many  friends 
beside,  and  connections  by  marriage,  who  had  to 
be  visited  ;  and  there  was,  moreover,  an  American 
wedding  at  which  we  had  the  happiness  to  assist, 
peculiar  in  that  it  was  celebrated  within  the  drawing- 
room  of  the  house,  the  very  charming  bride  and  her 
procession  of  attendants  passing  between  lines  gar- 
landed with  flowers,  held  by  little  pages,  to  the 
grand  piano,  beside  which  two  clergymen  performed 
the  brief  rite.  There  was  a  festal  gathering,  too,  of 
"  American  cousins  " — extremely  gay  and  cordial — 
to  attend  ;  and  one  of  our  earliest  days  was  devoted 
to  a  visit  to  Oak  Knoll,  Danvers,  the  residence  of 
the  esteemed  poet,  Whittier. 

The  venerable  singer  lives  in  a  comfortable  and 
characteristic  dwelling,  surrounded  by  a  small  park, 
left  much  as  Nature  made  it,  and  as  the  pre- 
Adamite  glaciers  chiselled  out  its  dells  and  hil- 
locks, which  are  shaded  by  large  oak,  elm,  maple, 
and  magnolia  trees,  amid  the  boughs  of  which  the 
American  robins  pipe,  and  chipmunks  and  grey 
squirrels  play.  Mr.  Whittier  is  now  verging  upon 
eighty  years  of  age,  but  his  tall,  lithe  figure  is  still 
erect,  his  clear  penetrating  deep  gray-blue  eyes 
undimmed ;  and  albeit  shy  and  reserved  by  habit,  he 
unbends  sweetly  and  genially  to  accepted  friends. 
A  stuffed  bald-headed  eagle,  mounted  as  if  grasping 
a  small  star-spangled  banner,  testified — if  that  were 
neeessary — to  his  patriotism  ;  an  old  tailless  sheep- 


9o  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

dog,  which  nestled  its  muzzle  on  the  master's  knee 
while  we  talked,  to  his  love  of  animals.  His 
conversation,  which  was  of  the  Quaker  fashion,  full 
of  "  thee's  and  thou's,"  was  pointed,  animated,  and 
marked  by  the  felicity  of  his  printed  works ;  nor  can 
any  cultured  person  need  to  be  told  how  classic,  and 
lucid,  and  happy  are  many  of  Whittier's  best  lines. 
He  smiled,  half  sadly,  when  I  expressed  the  wish 
that  he  could  come  across  the  Atlantic  to  see,  under 
the  memorial  window  to  Milton,  in  St.  Margaret's 
Church  at  Westminster,  his  own  admirable  verse — 

"  The  New  World  honours  thee,  whose  lofty  plea 
For  England's  freedom  made  her  own  more  sure. 
Thy  page,  immortal  as  its  theme,  shall  be 
Their  common  freehold,  while  the  worlds  endure." 

He  dropped  a  bright  epigram  in  the  course  of  our 
chat.  I  had  been  praising  Emerson,  and  lamenting 
that  a  great  authority — known  to  us  both — dissented, 
and  compared  the  Concord  philosopher's  style  in 
prose  to  "  the  shooting  forth  of  stones  from  a  sack." 
"  Ah  !  but,"  replied  instantly  the  old  poet,  "  thou 
knowest  well,  friend,  they  are  all  precious  stones." 
And  I  wTas  happy  enough  to  obtain  an  interesting 
avowal  from  his  lips.  He  had  been  speaking  of  the 
enduring  and  gloomy  influence  of  the  old-accustomed 
Puritan  doctrines  upon  the  minds  of  New  Engianders, 
of  their  pernicious  darkening  of  life  and  literature, 
and  howT  that  he  himself  had  come  under  the  cloud 
of  Calvinism  and  its  terrors.  "  But  you,"  I  said, 
"  Sir,  born  in  the  purple  of  the  Muses,  never  were, 
and  never  could  have  been  a  Calvinistic   Puritan." 


BOSTON.  91 

"  Nay,  thou'rt  right,"  he  answered,  "  the  world  was 
much  too  beautiful  and  God  far  too  good.  I  never 
was  of  that  mind." 

I  made  another  delightful  pilgrimage — this  time 
to  the  shrine  of  a  life-long  regard  and  attachment. 
We  passed  a  perfectly  delightful  day  at  the  house 
of  Emerson,  in  Concord,  some  twenty  miles  from 
Boston,  entertained  by  Dr.  Emerson,  his  son,  who 
closely  resembles  his  illustrious  father  in  lineaments, 
and  Miss  Ellen  Emerson,  his  daughter,  whose  sweet 
and  benign  countenance  still  more  completely  per- 
petuates the  philosopher's  serenity  and  radiant  charm 
of  expression.  Judge  Hoar,  a  well-known  citizen  of 
Concord,  captured  us  for  a  time  at  the  Concord 
Station,  and  drove  us  round  to  see  the  bridge, 
where  the  first  musket  was  fired  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary war.  Is  there  any  spot  in  ancient  or  modern 
lands  more  replete  with  sad,  and  yet  lofty  recollec- 
tions, than  this  where 

"  Th'  embattled  fanners  stood, 
And  tired  the  shot,  heard  round  the  world." 

You  recall  the  facts  ?  General  Gage,  commanding 
at  Boston,  had  ordered  the  destruction  of  stores 
and  guns  collected  near  the  river  by  the  malcontents, 
and  a  column  of  some  hundreds  of  British  troops 
marched  secretly  to  Concord  to  execute  the  order. 
They  were  met  and  checked  at  the  little  stream  by 
a  band  of  American  "minute-men"  under  Major 
Isaac  Bruddick,  and,  being  resisted,  they  opened 
fire.  The  shots  wounded  a  Revolutionary  or  two, 
and  then  Major  Bruddick  cried  out,  "  fire,  in  God's 


9 2  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

name,  fellow-soldiers  !"  himself  discharging  his  piece. 
Two  British  grenadiers  fell  to  the  ensuing  volley, 
and  that  which  replied  from  the  King's  ranks  killed 
the  rebel  officer  and  one  Abner  Hosmer.  The  first 
blood  of  the  struggle  had  been  fatally  spilled ;  the 
sorrowful  but  inevitable  conflict  had  begun.  At 
sound  of  those  unhappy  volleys  the  whole  district 
rose — the  British  column  was  mobbed,  harassed, 
decimated  with  ambuscades,  as  it  drew  back  towards 
Boston,  and  must  have  been  destroyed,  but  for  Lord 
Percy's  appearance  and  succour  with  1200  men  of 
the  garrison.  A  bullet-hole  in  a  neighbouring  cottage 
still  shows  how  hot  the  fight  was,  and  how  well  these 
frame-buildings  last.  The  bridge  itself  now  presents 
the  most  peaceful  sylvan  scene  imaginable — a  grove 
of  elm  and  maple  leading  to  the  wooden  arches,  a 
placid  glittering  rural  river,  and  to  mark  its  historical 
significance  only  a  statue  and  a  grave.  The  statue, 
by  French,  in  bronze,  spiritedly  represents  a  Concord 
farmer  turning  from  his  plough,  flint-lock  gun  in 
hand,  and  with  eager,  angry  look,  to  the  entrance  of 
the  bridge.  The  roadside  inscription  runs,  "  Grave  of 
two  British  soldiers,"  and  I  bared  my  head  in  respect 
to  those  honest  victims  of  a  mistaken  policy,  who  died 
doing  their  duty  as  much  as  George  Washington's 
"  minute-men."  It  was  good  to  hear  that  when,  in 
1875,  on  the  centenary  of  that  hapless  April  19th, 
America  celebrated  "the  shot  heard  round  the  world," 
the  resting-place  of  our  poor  fellow-countrymen  was 
covered  with  flowers.  1  am  proud  to  add  that 
those  votive  blooms  were  deposited,  with  the  kind 
approval    of   the    Celebration    Committee,  by   some 


BOSTON.  93 

English  workmen  of  the  Waltham  Watch  Factory. 
If  I  could  have  met  these  worthy  fellows  I  would 
have  thanked  them  for  all  England.  We  may 
regret  Lord  North's  policy  and  the  King's  obsti- 
nacy, but  our  British  soldiers  did  their  devoir,  as 
always,  in  that  quarrel  ;  now,  happily,  hard  to 
remember. 

Hawthorne's  house — scene  of  "  Mosses  from  an 
Old  Manse  " — stands  nigh  the  bridge,  and  Emerson's 
is  not  far  away.  The  rooms  in  it  are  kept  exactly 
as  the  poet-philosopher  left  them.  There  are  his 
books,  well  marked ;  the  engraving,  "  Aurora  of 
Guido,"  given  by  Carlyle  for  a  marriage  present ; 
the  blotting  pad  with  its  latest  ink  impressions, 
the  horsehair  sofa  on  which  he  lay  nigh  to  death, 
the  wood-pile,  the  trees — in  their  branches  the 
"  gay>  polite  titmouse  "  is  immortalised — the  simple 
"homely"  home,  with  its  low-pitched  farmlike 
apartments  and  old-world  furniture,  all  sacred  and 
unchanged.  I  traced  in  more  than  one  volume  of 
his  modest  library  the  footsteps  of  his  serene  and 
radiant  mind,  especially  the  Indian  translations. 
I  saw  where  he  had  lighted  on  the  passage  from 
the  Bhagavad-Gita,  which  struck  him  so,  "  When 
the  red  slayer  saith,  I  slay."  At  dinner  it  was  my 
distinction  to  conduct  to  the  table  and  to  sit  beside 
his  venerable  widow,  a  lady  now  very  aged  and 
infirm,  but  still  retaining  marks  of  the  beauty  of 
"  Queenie."  Mrs.  Emerson  walks  and  converses 
with  difficulty,  but  retains  her  clearness  and  sweet- 
ness of  mind.  A  bouquet  of  wild  blossoms  sug- 
gested the  question — 


94  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

"  What  flower  of  all  the  garden  do  you  like 
best?" 

"  Oh,  I  should  be  ashamed  to  give  you  any  other 
answer,  Sir  Edwin,  except  '  The  Rose.'  " 

"  But  you  know  that  is  the  flower,  par  excellence, 
of  England  ?  " 

"  Well,  I  do  not  love  it  a  little  bit  the  less  on 
that  account." 

In  fact,  the  dear  old  lady  was  wholly  delightful, 
but  did  not  once  speak  about  her  great  husband. 
After  the  repast  we  drove  in  Emerson's  "  carry-all  " 
through  the  wild  pine-woods  to  Walden  Pond,  the 
spot  of  all  others  dearest  to  his  heart,  and  that 
where  he  was  accustomed  to  meditate  day  after  day, 
trudging  the  league  of  sandy  road  thither  and  back 
again.  Those  who  know  Emerson's  poems  will 
recall  the  verses — 

"  If  I  could  put  my  woods  in  song, 
And  tell  what's  there  enjoyed, 
All  men  would  to  my  garden  throng, 
And  leave  the  cities  void. 

My  garden  is  a  forest  ledge, 

Which  older  forests  bound  ; 
The  rocks  slope  to  the  blue  lake  edge, 

Then  plunge  to  depths  profound." 

It  is,  in  truth,  an  unique  spot,  wild  as  when  Red 
Indians  alone  trod  it,  where  the  deep  lakelet 
.slumbers  under  the  boughs  of  beech,  hemlock,  and 
"  savage  maple,"  and  the  solitude-loving  Thoreau 
was  content  to  build  himself  a  hut.  AVe  sate  under 
the  white  pines  where  Emerson  was  wont  to  pass 


BOSTOX.  95 

the  lonely  hours,  and  then  drove  the  sure-tooted 
American  horse  up  and  down  neck-breaking  wood- 
land alleys,  over  tree-stumps  and  hollows  full  of 
wild  asters  and  yellow  "touch-me-not,"  to  cadi 
point  of  the  sequestered  pool  which  had  been  his 
favourite  haunts ;  and  evening  came  upon  us  before 
we  could  return  from  the  fascinating  influences 
of  the  place,  to  the  little  white  wooden  house 
with  green  shutters  consecrated  by  the  genius  of 
America's  chief  thinker  and  teacher. 

One  other  Boston  pilgrimage  must  be  mentioned. 
On  the  road  from  Cambridge  to  Mount  Auburn 
stands  a  spacious  and  comfortable  wooden  house — 
everything  almost  is  built  from  the  forests  in  Xew 
England — looking  over  fields  and  gardens  towards 
Brighton,  and  standing  in  pleasant  grounds.  There 
Washington  lived;  and  there  also  Longfellow,  the 
greatest  of  American  poets,  dwelt  for  many  a  year. 
By  the  kind  invitation  of  the  poet's  daughter — the 
"grave1  Alice"  of  his  well-known  line — a  happy 
afternoon  hour  was  passed  reading  the  original  MSS. 
of  "  Evangeline,"  and  other  world-known  works,  in 
the  exquisitely  neat  handwriting  of  the  author,  in- 
specting the  domestic  treasures  of  his  home,  the 
pictures  he  loved,  the  pens  and  desk  he  used.  Here 
was  the  armchair  where  he  wrote  the  "  Come  to  me, 
O  my  children  !  "  there  the  "Clock  on  the  Stair" 
which  ticked  the  "  Never!  For  ever!  "  His  portrait. 
on  which  a  laurel-wreath  hung,  stood  side  by  side 
with  that  of  Emerson  ;  and  the  present  gentle  mistress 
of  Craigie  House  told  us  many  a  trait  and  habit  of 
her  great  and  famous  father,  whose  Ivries  are  to-day 


96  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

on  every  lip.  A  handsome  girl  was  among  the  com- 
pany— a  student  in  the  Female  Annexe  at  Harvard 
— from  South  Carolina.  Her  father's  estate,  near 
Savannah,  had  been  desolated  by  Sherman's  march, 
of  which  we  spoke.  I  asked,  "  Have  you  all  forgiven 
and  forgotten  that,  and  the  war,  down  South  ? " 
"  We  have  forgiven,"  the  Southern  lady  replied, 
"  but  we  have  not  forgotten."  Going  home  we 
crossed  the  bridge  over  the  Charles  River,  where 
were  conceived  those  tender  lines  beginning,  "  I 
stood  on  the  bridge  at  midnight,"  and,  full  of 
thoughts  about  the  waste  of  warfare,  and  the  efforts 
of  poets  and  philosophers  to  redeem  and  exalt,  the 
ripples  of  the  salt  water  seemed  to  murmur — 

"  And,  for  ever  and  for  ever — 
As  long  as  the  river  flows, 
As  long  as  life  has  passions 
As  long  as  life  has  woes — 

The  moon  and  her  broken  reflections, 

And  the  shadows,  shall  appear- 
Like  the  symbol  of  love  in  the  heavens, 

And  its  wavering  image  here." 

Boston,  Sept.  25,  1889. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

HARVARD. 

Ax  agreeable  sojourn  in  Boston — the  greater  part 
of  it  passed  under  the  hospitable  roof  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  Harvard  University,  Dr.  Charles  W.  Eliot — 
enabled  me  to  study  with  advantage  the  chief  educa- 
tional centre  of  the  United  States.  A  walk  of  two 
miles — which  may  be  performed  by  the  electric  or 
the  horse  car — brings  you,  bv  busv  streets  first,  and 
then  by  pretty  villas  and  gardens,  to  Harvard  Square, 
in  the  vicinity  of  which  the  buildings  of  the  University 
congregate.  The  principal  of  these,  alike  architec- 
turally and  in  point  of  interest,  is  the  Memorial  Hall, 
recently  erected  to  commemorate  the  Harvard  students 
who  gave  their  lives  for  their  country's  safety  and 
integrity  in  the  Secession  War.  This  structure  of 
red  brick  and  stone,  with  a  lofty  and  ornate  campa- 
nile, contains,  beside  a  very  large  dining-hall  and 
a  commodious  Theatre  for  Lectures,  i£c,  a  central 
corridor,  imposingly  adorned  with  marble,  polished 
woods,  and  stained  glass  windows,  the  walls  of  which 
exhibit  tablets  bearing  the  names  and  places  of  death 
of  all  those  devoted  alumni.  Near  and  far  around 
about  this  stately  building  are  scattered  others,  well 
reared   in    granite,   masonry,   or   brick,   dedicated   to 


9 8  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Law,  to  Medicine,  to  Chemistry,  Physics,  Astronomy, 
Classical  Studies,  Gymnastic  Exercises,  &c.  The 
Gymnasium  is  a  particularly  fine  and  well-equipped 
erection,  and  is  scientifically  conducted  with  a  view 
to  give  Harvardians  the  corpus  sanum  which  is  so 
indispensable  to  the  mens  sana. 

Round  about,  or  among  these  various  and  numerous 
edifices  of  the  University,  the  "  Hall  "  and  "  Houses  " 
used  by  the  students  as  residences  cluster — built 
mainly  of  red  brick,  in  a  plain  substantial  style,  and 
harmonising  well  enough  with  the  marble  and  stone- 
work of  the  other  structures,  and  the  groves  of  elm, 
ash,  hickory,  maple  and  oak,  everywhere  liberally 
bestowing  shade  and  verdure  to  the  New  England 
Academe.  The  President's  House  stands  pleasantly 
in  one  of  the  open  grassy  spaces  characteristic  of 
Harvard,  Brookline,  and  all  the  Boston  suburbs,  nor 
can  I  forbear  repeating  how  agreeable  a  sense  of 
good  order  and  goodwill  is  imparted  by  these  un- 
fenced  gardens,  open  to  all  alike,  but  never  tres- 
passed upon.  There  are  no  distinctive  colleges  in 
Harvard,  but  only  "  Halls  and  Houses,"  which  do 
not  produce  any  esprit  de  coips,  as  with  us,  as 
they  are  merely  large  common  dormitories.  It  is  a 
common  practice  for  two  students  to  occupy  one 
apartment,  with  two  small  sleeping-rooms  attached, 
or  sometimes  only  one  with  two  beds.  The  follow- 
ing table  exhibits  four  scales  of  annual  expendi- 
ture, the  expenses  of  the  long  vacation  not  being 
included : — 


HARVARD. 


99 


Least. 
8150 

Keollolliirul. 

8150 

Moderate. 
8150 

Verv 
I.ilM-rul. 

Tuition        .... 

8150 

Books  and  stationery  . 

28 

35 

45 

01 

Clothing      .... 

70 

120 

150 

800 

Room          .... 

22 

80 

100 

175 

Furniture  (annual  average) 

10 

15 

25 

50 

Board         .         .         .         . 

183 

152 

152 

804 

Fuel  and  light    . 

11 

15 

30 

45 

Washing     .... 

15 

20 

40 

50 

Societies  and  subscription  to 

sports  (annual  average) 

35 

50 

Servant       .... 

25 

Sundries      .... 
Total       . 

45 

55 

86 

150 

8484 

8502 

8812 

81,3(50 

Members  of  any  department  of  the  University  can 
board  at  cost  by  joining  the  association  which  uses 
the  great  dining-hall  of  Memorial  Hall.  The  cost 
of  board  to  the  members  of  this  association  is 
expected  not  to  exceed  S4.2")  a  week.  It  will  he 
perceived  that  the  Republic  offers  a  high  collegiate 
education  and  degree  for  less  than  £100  per 
annum.  The  "  men  "  wear  no  distinctive  collegiate 
dress  whatever. 

Harvard  College  was  founded  in  103(>,  bv  the 
General  Court  of  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
the  vote  reading  as  follows — "The  Court  agree  to 
give  £400  towards  a  school  or  college,  whereof 
£200  shall  be  paid  the  next  year,  and  £200  when 
the  work  is  finished,  and  the  next  Court  to  appoint 
where  and  what  building."  In  the  following  year 
John  Harvard,  a  nonconforming  clergyman  of  Eng- 
land, died  at  Charlestown,  leaving  half  of  his  whole 
property  and  his  entire  library  (about  o00  volumes) 


ioo  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

to  the  institution.  The  value  of  this  bequest  was 
more  than  double  the  entire  sum  originally  voted  by 
the  Court,  and  it  was  resolved  to  open  the  college  at 
once,  and  to  give  it  the  name  of  Harvard.  The  first 
class  was  formed  in  the  same  year.  In  1642  the 
Act  was  passed  establishing  the  overseers  of  Harvard 
College  with  this  modest  preamble — "  Whereas, 
through  the  good  hand  of  God  upon  us,  there  is  a 
college  founded  in  Cambridge,  in  the  county  of 
Middlesex,  called  Harvard  College,  for  the  encourage- 
ment whereof  this  Court  has  given  the  sum  of  £400, 
and  also  the  revenue  of  the  ferry  betwixt  Charles- 
town  and  Boston,  and  that  the  well  ordering  and 
managing  of  the  said  college  is  of  great  concern- 
ment." Assuredly  it  was  of  "  great  concernment," 
and  has  grown  by  nobly  generous  donations  and 
personal  devotion  more  than  by  any  munificence  of 
the  Government,  to  its  present  wealth  and  usefulness, 
maintaining  a  splendid  and  erudite  staff  of  sixty-six 
learned  professors,  besides  numerous  assistant-tutors, 
and  being  able  to  bestow  on  indigent  but  meritorious 
scholars  as  much  as  $45,000  a  year  in  scholarships, 
"  beneficiary  funds,"  monitorships,  and  the  like.  A 
"  parietal  committee "  looks  after  the  discipline  of 
the  institution,  which  seems,  however,  to  an  Oxford 
man  extremely  lax,  there  being  few  or  no  restrictions 
as  to  hours,  attendance  at  lectures  or  chapel,  or  roll- 
call  ;  and  a  general  freedom  as  to  coming  and  going, 
working  or  playing,  which,  however,  appears  to  agree 
with  the  Democratic  Muses;  for  no  one  could  desire 
to  see  a  more  gentlemanly  or  reasonably  decorous  set 
of  students.     The  statutes  sav — 


HARVARD.  101 

The  respective  Faculties  have  authority  to  impose  hues  and 
levy  assessments  for  damage  done  to  property  ;  to  inflict,  at  their 
discretion,  the  penalties  of  admonition,  suspension,  dismission,  and 
expulsion,  and  to  use  all  other  appropriate  means  of  discipline; 
hut  no  student  shall  be  separated  from  the  University,  either 
temporarily  or  permanently,  by  a  vote  of  less  than  two-thirds  of 
the  members  of  his  Faculty  present  and  voting  thereon.  Sus- 
pension is  a  separation  from  the  University  for  a  fixed  period  of 
time.  It  may  be  accompanied  with  a  requirement  of  residence 
in  a  specified  place,  and  of  the  performance  of  specified  tasks. 
Dismission  closes  a  student's  connection  with  the  University, 
without  necessarily  precluding  his  return.  Expulsion  is  the 
highest  academic  censure,  and  involves  final  separation. 

Much,  under  such  an  easy  regime,  must  obviously 
depend  upon  the  character  of  the  Principal,  and 
Harvard  is  fortunate  in  possessing  a  head  at  present, 
perfectly  blending  the  suaviter  and  fortiter  in  his 
just,  commanding,  and  sympathetic  sway. 

The  regulations  of  the  Gymnasium  arc  very 
practical  and  wise — 

Upon  entering  the  University,  each  student  is  entitled  to  an 
examination  by  the  director,  in  which  his  physical  proportions 
are  measured,' his  strength  tested,  his  heart  and  lungs  examined, 
and  information  is  solicited  concerning  his  general  health  and 
inherited  tendencies.  From  the  data  thus  procured,  a  special 
order  of  appropriate  exercises  is  made  out  for  each  student,  with 
specifications  of  the  movements  and  apparatus  which  he  may  hot 
use.  After  working  on  this  prescription  for  three  or  six  months, 
the  student  is  entitled  to  another  examination,  by  which  tin- 
results  of  his  work  are  ascertained,  and  the  director  enabled  t" 
make  a  further  prescription  for  his  individual  case. 

The  Astronomical  Observatory  is  most  intelli- 
gently    and     sedulously    carried    on     by    its     gifted 


102  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

director,  Mr.  Edward  Pickering,  under  whose  kind 
guidance  I  inspected  admirably  designed  apparatus 
of  registration  and  observation,  and  saw  some  of 
the  most  interesting  examples  of  stellar  photography 
and  planet  pictures.  A  perfect  treasure-store  has 
been  accumulated  of  the  spectra  of  stars,  &c. 

The  Arnold  Arboretum  is  another  special  and 
excellent  department.  It  was  founded  for  the 
purpose  of  scientific  research  and  experiment  in 
arboriculture,  forestry,  and  dendrology,  and  as  a 
museum  of  trees  and  shrubs  suited  to  the  climate 
of  Massachusetts.  The  arboretum  occupies  a  por- 
tion of  the  Bussey  farm  in  West  Roxbury,  160  acres 
in  extent,  and  under  a  special  arrangement  with  the 
City  of  Boston  is  open  to  the  public  every  day  in 
the  year  from  sunrise  to  sunset.  The  living  col- 
lections are  supplemented  by  an  herbarium,  museum, 
and  library.  These  occupy  temporarily  the  "Dwight" 
House,  at  the  corner  of  Warren  and  Cottage  Streets 
in  Brookline,  until  a  suitable  library  and  museum 
building  can  be  erected  on  the  arboretum  grounds. 
There  is  an  admirable  college  library — where  I  saw 
the  original  MS.  of  Shelley's  "  Ode  to  a  Skylark  " 
— managed  by  a  devotee  to  his  duties,  Mr  Justin 
Winsor,  open  for  use  to  all  students,  who  may 
have  three  volumes  at  a  time  for  four  weeks. 

The  most  singular  and  characteristic  feature  of  the 
University  is,  perhaps,  the  arrangement  under  which 
preachers  and  ministers  of  all  sorts  of  denominations 
take  it  by  turns  to  officiate  in  the  College  chapel,  or 
sometimes  officiate  there  simultaneously,  in  a  way 
which  would  suggest  the  Scotchman's  definition  of 


HARVARD.  103 

the  haggis,  viz.,  that  it  was  "  fine  confused  eating." 
On  June  14,  1886,  on  the  unanimous  recommenda- 
tion of  the  preachers  and  the  Plummer  Professor, 
the  President  and  Fellows  voted  "That  the  statute 
numbered  lo,  concerning  religious  services,  be 
amended  by  striking  out  the  clause  '  at  which 
the  attendance  of  the  students  is  required,' "  and 
on  June  10  the  Board  of  Overseers  concurred  in 
this  vote.  Attendance  at  the  religious  services  of 
the  University  was  thus,  by  the  advice  of  those 
who  conduct  these  services,  and  to  the  satisfaction 
of  all  concerned  in  them,  made  wholly  voluntary. 
Oriental  languages  are  not  neglected,  and  Sanskrit 
especially  is  faithfully  advanced  by  its  accomplished 
professor,  Mr.  Charles  R.  Lanman,  while  the  name  of 
Professor  Charles  E.  Norton,  holding  the  chair  of 
the  Fine  Arts,  is  known  to  all  students  of  {esthetic 
literatures.  Speaking  of  the  splendid  benefactions 
bv  which  the  buildings  of  Harvard  have  been  reared, 
and  its  large  educational  staff  endowed,  President 
Eliot  said,  last  year,  in  an  address  delivered  before 
the  "  Phi  Beta  Kappa  "  Society — 

The  endowment  of  institutions  of  education,  including  libraries 
aud  museums,  by  private  persons  in  the  United  States  is  a  pheno- 
menon without  precedent  or  parallel,  and  is  a  legitimate  effect  of 
democratic  institutions.  Under  a  tyranny — were  it  ,that  of  a 
Marcus  Aurelius — or  an  oligarchy,  were  it  as  enlightened  as  that 
which  now  rules  Germany,  such  a  phenomenon  would  he  simply 
impossible.  The  University  of  Strasburg  was  lately  established 
by  an  Imperial  Decree,  and  is  chiefly  maintained  out  of  the 
revenue  of  the  State.  Harvard  University  has  been  250  years 
in  growing  to  its  present  stature,  and  is  even  now  inferior  at  many 
points  to  the  new  University  of  Strasburg  ;   but  Harvard   i.-  the 


104  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

creation  of  thousands  of  persons,  living  and  dead,  rich  and  poor, 
learned  and  simple,  who  have  voluntarily  given  it  their  time, 
thought,  or  money,  and  lavished  upon  it  their  affection  ;  Stras- 
burg  exists  by  the  mandate  of  the  ruling  few  directing  upon  it 
a  part  of  the  product  of  ordinary  taxation.  Like  the  voluntary 
system  in  religion,  the  voluntary  system  in  the  higher  education 
buttresses  democracy  ;  each  demands  from  the  community  a  large 
outlay  of  intellectual  activity  and  moral  vigour. 

The  subjoined  further  remarks  from  the  same 
eloquent  lips  cannot  but  be  read  with  profit,  as  they 
give  the  views  of  one  who  is  the  chief  scholar  and 
highest  dignitary  of  learning  in  the  States,  upon 
this  phenomenon  which  every  observer  must  note — 
the  gradual  uprise  in  America  of  three  aristocracies, 
those  of  historic  descent,  of  culture,  and  of  wealth. 
In  politics  the  successful  statesman  founds  nothing ; 
his  gens  often  sinks  back  into  the  ocean  of  general 
existence,  like  a  collapsed  bubble.  But  the  names 
of  Dana,  Cabot,  Channing,  Lothrop,  Higginson, 
Endicott,  Adams,  and  the  like  keep  in  front,  like 
those  of  Cossus,  Claudius,  Appius,  and  Flavius  in 
ancient  Rome,  and  education  Hows  constantly  in 
the  same  channels  generation  after  generation.  The 
President's  words  were — 

In  the  future  there  will  undoubtedly  be  seen  a  great  increase 
in  the  number  of  permanent  families  in  the  United  States — 
families  in  which  honour,  education,  and  property  will  be  trans- 
mitted with  reasonable  certainty  ;  and  a  fair  beginning  has  already 
been  made.  On  the  quinquennial  catalogue  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity there  are  about  5(>0  family  stocks,  which  have  been 
represented  by  graduates  at  intervals  for  at  least  one  hundred 
years.  On  the  Yale  catalogue  there  are  about  420  such  family 
stocks ;  and  it    is    probable   that    all    other    American    colleges 


HARVARD. 


»°5 


which  have  existed  one  hundred  years  or  more  show  similar 
facts  in  proportion  to  their  age  and  to  the  number  of  their  grad- 
uates. There  is  nothing  in  American  institutions  to  prevent  this 
natural  process  from  extending  and  continuing.  The  college 
graduate  who  does  not  send  his  son  to  college  is  a  curious  ex- 
ception.  American  colleges  are,  indeed,  chiefly  recruited  from 
the  sons  of  men  who  were  not  college-bred  themselves;  Un- 
democratic society  is  mobile,  and  permits  young  men  of  ability 
to  rise  easily  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  levels.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  nothing  in  the  constitution  of  society  forces  men 
down  who  have  once  risen,  or  prevents  their  children  and  grand- 
children from  staying  on  the  higher  level  if  they  have  the  virtue 
in  them.  The  interest  in  family  genealogies  has  much  increased 
of  late  years,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  persons  are  already 
recorded  in  printed  volumes  which  have  been  compiled  and 
published  by  voluntary  contributions  or  by  the  zeal  of  individ- 
uals. In  the  Harvard  University  Library  are  415  American 
family  genealogies,  three-quarters  of  which  have  been  printed 
since  1860.  Many  of  these  families  might  better  be  called  clans 
or  tribes,  so  numerous  is  their  membership.  Thus  of  the  North- 
ampton Lyman  family  there  were  living,  when  the  family 
genealogy  was  published  in  1872,  more  than  4000  persons. 
When  some  American  Galton  desires  in  the  next  century  to 
study  hereditary  genius  or  character  under  a  democracy,  he  will 
find  ready  to  his  hand  an  enormous  mass  of  material. 

I  must  quote  my  distinguished  friend  and  host 
once  more  upon  a  subject  of  universal  interest — 
that  of  whether  the  democratic  form  of  government 
necessarily  breeds  democratic  manners.  Assuredly 
an  Englishman  misses  in  the  States  the  deferential 
tone  of  old  civilisations,  the  habitual  regard  of  rank 
or  position,  the  readiness  to  serve.  But  lie  finds 
as  much  or  more  goodwill,  as  much  or  more  real 
serviceableness,  as  much  or  more  of  frank  manly 
IxmJioniir,  among    these    Wi  nestlings    of    the    Bird   of 


io6  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Freedom."  Here  is  what  President  Eliot  said  on 
the  matter,  and  there  can  exist  no  higher  authority, 
or  more  equitable  if  patriotic  judge — 

The  highest  education  might  exist,  and  yet  the  highest  types 
of  manners  might  fail.  Do  these  fail  ?  On  this  important  point 
American  experience  is  already  interesting  and,  I  think,  con- 
clusive. Forty  years  ago  Emerson  said  it  was  a  chief  felicity 
of  our  country  that  it  excelled  in  women.  It  excels  more  and 
more.  Who  has  not  seen  in  public  and  in  private  life  American 
women  unsurpassable  in  grace  and  graciousness,  in  serenity  and 
dignity,  and  in  effluent  gladness  and  abounding  courtesy  ? 
Now,  the  lady  is  the  consummate  fruit  of  human  society  at  its 
best.  '  In  all  the  higher  walks  of  American  life  there  are  men 
whose  bearing  and  aspect  at  once  distinguish  them  as  gentlemen. 
They  have  personal  force,  magnanimity,  moderation,  and  refine- 
ment ;  they  are  quick  to  see  and  to  sympathise  ;  they  are  pure, 
brave,  and  firm.  These  are  also  the  qualities  that  command 
success,  and  herein  lies  the  only  natural  connection  between  the 
possession  of  property  and  nobility  of  character.  In  a  mobile  or 
free  society  the  excellent  or  noble  man  is  like  to  win  ease  and  in- 
dependence, but  it  does  not  follow  that  under  any  form  of  govern- 
ment the  man  of  many  possessions  is  necessarily  excellent.  On 
the  evidence  of  my  reading  and  of  my  personal  observation  at 
home  and  abroad,  I  fully  believe  that  there  is  a  larger  propor- 
tion of  ladies  and  gentlemen  in  the  United  States  than  in  any 
other  country.  This  proposition  is,  I  think,  true  with  the  high- 
est definition  of  the  term  "lady  "or  "  gentleman  ;"  but  it  is 
also  true,  if  ladies  and  gentlemen  are  only  persons  who  are  clean 
and  well-dressed,  who  speak  gently  and  eat  with  their  forks.  It 
is  unnecessary,  however,  to  claim  any  superiority  for  democracy  in 
this  respect  ;  enough  that  the  highest  type  of  manners  in  men 
and  women  are  produced  abundantly  on  democratic  soil. 

It  would  appear,  then,  from  American  experience  that  neither 
generations  of  privileged  ancestors,  nor  large  inherited  posses- 
sions, are  necessary  to  the  making  of  a  lady  or  a  gentleman. 


HARVARD.  107 

What  is   necessary?       In   the    first    place,    natural    uif'ts        The 
gentleman  is  born  in  democracy,  no  less  than  in  a  monarchy. 

It  was  my  privilege  and  honour  to  lecture  twice 
before  the  University  of  Harvard  by  special  invita- 
tion ;  and  the  extreme  consideration  of  the  audience 
rendered  easy  and  pleasant  an  otherwise  formidable 
task.  The  lectures  were  delivered  in  the  Sander's 
Theatre  of  the  Memorial  Hall,  holding  1400,  a 
large  portion  of  whom  were  students  of  Harvard. 
In  the  first  address  I  sought  to  expound  the  three 
main  philosophical  ideas  found  in  the  Upanishads, 
or  religious  treatises  of  the  Vedanta  ;  and  in  the 
second  I  had  upon  the  table  a  printed  and  a  manu- 
script Sanskrit  text  of  the  colossal  Epic  Poem  of 
India  called  "  The  Mahabharata,"  of  which  I  ex- 
plained the  leading  incidents  and  general  character, 
reading  my  own  translation  of  the  concluding  por- 
tions. I  only  mention  this  to  record  that  no  one 
could  have  had  a  more  intelligent,  attentive,  or  sym- 
pathetic audience  than  the  University  furnished, 
and  that  the  success  of  one  so  ill-qualified  to  speak 
upon  such  great  topics — topics,  moreover,  promis- 
ing so  little  general  attraction — was  a  convincing 
proof  of  the  eagerness  of  these  young  educated 
American  gentlemen  for  expanded  ideas.  And 
since  the  last  periods  of  the  second  lecture  em- 
bodied ideas  which  I  had  formed  as  to  tin1  great 
utility  of  philosophical  studies — and  particularly 
of  Oriental  metaphysics  and  literature — for  the 
American  student,  I  shall  venture  to  append  here 
the  peroration  of  that   address.     After   terminating 


108  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

the  descriptive  and  recitative   part  of  what  I  had 
to  say,  these  words  were  added — 

Since  I  am  happy  enough  to  find  myself  face  to  face  with  the 
students  of  this  renowned  University,  I  would  venture,  not  on 
the  impertinence  of  advice,  of  which  I  am  incapable,  but  on  the 
privilege  of  a  few  friendly,  respectful  remarks,  encouraged  by 
your  generous  reception  to-night.  As  I  have  seen  in  Washington, 
with  great  interest,  the  Capitol,  and  in  it  the' Supreme  Court  which 
is  the  heart  of  your  political  life,  so  I  recognise  here,  in  the  seat 
of  learning  so  worthily  ruled  by  my  valued  friend  and  gracious 
host  President  Eliot,  the  intellectual  centre  of  your  vast  com- 
munity. It  is  not  because  Oxford  is  older  than  Harvard  that 
an  Oxonian  sees  any  further  into  the  future  than  a  Harvard  man, 
or  has  any  right  to  give  himself  prophetic  or  archaeological  airs. 
It  is  true  that  my  grandfather  served  King  George  before  your 
Constitution  was  even  drawn  up,  and  that  my  own  particular 
college  was  founded  by  King  Alfred  the  Great.  But  we  have 
no  record  in  our  ancient  seats  of  learning  so  wholly  noble  and  so 
unspeakably  exalting  as  the  building  in  which  I  am  addressing 
you.  When  first  I  entered  it  I  read,  with  feelings  of  admiration, 
and  I  may  say  of  irrepressible  envy,  the  Latin  inscription  over 
its  gateway,  "In  memoriam  eorum  qui  his  sedibus  instituti  mortem 
pro  patrid  oppetiverunt."  I  have  found  with  pride  and  pleasure, 
greater  than  any  aristocratic  ties  could  ever  give  me,  the  names 
of  friends,  and  even  of  kindred  by  marriage,  inscribed  among 
those  illustrious  dead  whom  Harvard  offered  on  the  shrine  of 
a  pure  and  lofty,  and  a  justly  victorious  patriotism.  Passing 
through  your  Memorial  Hall,  and  reading  that  imperishable  cata- 
logue of  youthful  worthies,  who  suddenly  learned  the  highest 
lessons  that  life  can  teach  at  the  knee  of  Duty,  and  by  the  light 
of  the  flash  of  cannons — fresh,  moreover,  from  journeying  through 
your  rich  and  fertile  States — I  have  realised,  as  never  before,  the 
meaning  of  Lowell's  lines,  where,  speaking  of  America,  he  wrote — 

"  Binding  the  gold  of  war-dishevelled  hair 
On  such  sweet  brows  as  never  other  bore." 


HARVARD.  109 

At  Concord  Bridge  I  have  seen  the  now  peaceful  and  sylvan  spot 
where  "the  embattled  fanners  stood,  And  tired  the  shot,  heard 
round  the  world,"  and  I  bared  my  head,  as  much  to  them,  as  at 
the  adjacent  grave  of  King  George's  soldiers,  who  also  died  for 
duty,  defending  a  mistaken  policy.  At  Gettysburg  I  have  passed 
near  the  spot  where  the  peach-trees  now  cover  with  bright  con- 
ciliating verdure  the  field  whereon  North  and  South  met  in  de- 
plorable but  inevitable  conflict.  You  have  had  by  the  strange 
and  stern  decree  of  Destiny,  to  contend  with  and  to  vanquish 
first  your  fathers,  and  next  your  brothers.  I  think  you  have 
still  one  more  great  combat,  and  one  more  consummating  victory 
to  win,  which  will  be  over  yourselves!  If  I  were  a  Harvard 
man  my  dream  and  desire  would  be  to  help  to  continue  that 
brilliant  galaxy  of  intellect  which  glitters  already  with  the  names 
of  Longfellow,  Emerson,  Hawthorne,  Lowell,  Holmes,  Whittier, 
Irving,  and  many  another  such.  If  I  were  a  Harvard  man  I 
would  hope  and  strive  to  give  to  that  statue  of  Liberty  which 
towers  aloft  over  your  New  York  harbour,  as  Pallas  Athene  once 
looked  majestically  over  Sunium,  the  golden  a'gis  of  great  and 
high  ideas,  leavening  the  practical  pursuits  of  life;  the  ivory, 
carved  and  chased,  of  an  ever-aspiring  Republican  ait  and  litera- 
ture, signal  alike  for  courage,  elevation,  and  refinement.  I  would 
aspire  to  have  America  regarded  abroad  as  large-hearted  as  she 
is  liberal,  as  equitable  as  she  is  fearless,  as  splendid  in  the  service 
of  all  mankind  as  she  is  strong  for  her  own  security  and  progress. 
And  among  the  minor  means  to  this  I  would  wish  to  see  culti- 
vated those  fields  of  Eastern  philosophical  thought  which  I  have 
here  so  feebly  and  hastily  traversed,  as  affording  a  sweet  and 
sovereign  medicine  against  the  fever  of  a  too  busy  national  life. 
I  would  ask  the  days  as  they  pass  to  bestow,  as  Lmerson  simrs, 
not  merely  material  gifts,  not  alone  natural  development,  not  the 
<jross  and  transient  boons  of  which  you  are  assured— wealth, 
success,  influence,  comfort,  and  expansion  (the  "  herbs  and  apples  " 
of  his  divine  parable),  but  the  meditations  which  exalt,  the  aims 
which  ennoble,  the  convictions  which  consecrate,  the  studies 
which  redeem  the  life  of  man,  Cor  these  are  now  most  necessary  to 
the  wide  liberties  of  your  countrv,  and   will    best   embellish   her 


no  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

greatness.  Cultivate,  therefore,  I  entreat,  under  my  good  friend, 
your  able  and  accomplished  Sanskrit  professor,  among  other  studies, 
at  all  events,  the  philosophies  and  literature  of  India  ;  rejecting 
what  your  strong  and  sober  sense  will  perceive  to  be  useless  or 
childish  in  them,  while  some  of  you  at  least  assimilate  and  utilise 
the  loftiest  and  most  elevating  of  their  conceptions.  India  belongs 
to  you,  in  the  same  sense  in  which  she  belongs  to  us,  and  I 
rejoice  that  you  are  preparing  to  share  our  rights.  Do  you  know 
that  the  Mayflower,  which  brought  your  ancestors  thither,  went 
down  in  Indian  waters  off  Masulipatam  ?  Raise  her  some  day — 
in  fancy — and  freight  her  with  a  glorious  new  cargo  of  fresh  inves- 
tigations from  Massachusetts  Bay,  wherein  we  shall  find  the  Old 
World  interpreted  by  the  New  World,  and  American  scholars 
outdoing  the  best  of  England  and  Germany.  If  I  should  live 
to  see  that,  I  should  feel  like  Robinson  Crusoe,  who,  shaking 
forth  a  few  grains  from  an  almost  empty  sack  upon  a  generous 
and  fertile  soil,  passed  by  thereafter  to  find  upon  the  spot  a 
splendid  and  a  fruitful  harvest. 

Chicago,  Oct.  4,  1889. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

OCEAN    TO    OCEAN. 

We  have  just  accomplished,  in  five  days  and  five 
nights  and  five  hours,  without  fatigue  or  discomfort 
of  any  kind,  the  extraordinary  railway  journey  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  which  so  many  people  per- 
form nowadays  without  so  much  as  reflecting  upon 
the  vast  advance  of  civilisation  and  the  amazing 
human  enterprise  which  it  hetokens.  Between  after- 
noon tea  on  Thursday,  October  3,  and  supper-time  on 
Tuesday,  October  8,  we  have  securely  and  pleasantly 
travelled  over  3040  miles  in  a  continuous  course, 
passing  through  thirteen  or  fourteen  of  the  States 
of  the  Union,  crossing,  among  many  great  streams 
and  rivers,  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri,  and 
exchanging  for  the  view  across  Boston  harbour  and 
the  Atlantic  an  outlook,  through  the  Golden  Gates, 
over  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

It  is  not  feasible  to  achieve1  tins  remarkable 
transit  in  one  and  the  same  carriage.  We  travelled 
first  by  the  Boston  and  Albany  Railway  to  Chicago; 
thence,  after  an  hour's  delay  and  transfer  by  omni- 
bus, to  Council  Bluffs  by  the  Chicago  and  North- 
Western;  and  then,  crossing  the  Missouri  to 
Omaha,    completed     the    journey     by     the     Inion 


ii2  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Pacific  in  a  three  days'  run.  Thus  there  occur 
two  shifts  of  carriages  and  one  change  of  station 
upon  this,  the  most  direct  route ;  enough  to  break 
a  little  the  monotony  of  the  long  ride  and  to  give 
a  chance  of  stretching  the  confined  limbs.  But 
for  three  whole  days  and  nights  we  were  dom- 
ciled  permanently  "  on  board "  one  Pullman  car 
the  "  Paraiso,"  in  ample  comfort.  By  day  a  little 
table  fixed  between  the  luxurious  seats,  enables 
you  to  read,  write,  and  study  at  ease.  There  are 
smoking,  toilet,  and  dining-rooms  attached,  and  I 
append  the  menu  of  one  of  our  breakfasts,  cooked 
on  board  the  train,  and  admirably  served  while  the 
carriage  was  going  at  thirty-five  miles  an  hour. 

Breakfast. — Fruit,  Canteloupe  melons  ;  oatmeal,  coffee,  English 
breakfast  tea,  chocolate,  dry  toast,  hot  rolls,  dipped  toast,  plain 
bread,  Boston  brown  bread  toast,  corn  bread,  griddle  cakes,  with 
maple  syrup,  stewed  oysters,  raw  oysters,  broiled  whitefish,  salt 
mackerel ;  tenderloin  steak,  plain,  mushrooms,  or  tomato  sauce  ; 
sirloin  steak,  broiled  ham,  breakfast  bacon  ;  mutton  chops,  plain, 
or  with  tomato  sauce ;  calves'  liver,  with  bacon  ;  veal  cutlets, 
breaded  ;  sausage,  fried  chicken,  sliced  tomatoes,  broiled  Spanish 
mackerel ;  eggs — boiled,  fried,  scrambled ;  omelette,  plain,  with 
parsley  or  jelly;  potatoes — fried,  baked,  stewed.  Price  75 
cents. 

At  night  the  African  "  porters "  swiftly  and  in- 
geniously let  down  the  roof  of  the  car,  and  transform 
that  and  the  seats  below  into  wholly  commodious 
sleeping  berths.  Pocked  by  the  slight  vibration 
of  the  speed,  you  slumber  peacefully,  and  awake 
to  find  a  totally  new  region  flying-  past  your  window. 
Prairie-dog  villages,  perhaps,  instead  of  big  cities ; 


OCEAN   TO    OCEAN.  113 

or  a  desert  of  rolling'  sage-brush  where  yesterday 
all  was  maple,  maize-fields,  and  painted  farm- 
houses. 

The  woods  of  Massachusetts,  Vermont,  and  New 
Hampshire  had  put  on  their  full  autumn  glory  of 
colour  as  our  train  sped  swiftly  from  Boston  to 
Albany.  It  is  the  sugar-maple  which  lends  the 
brightest  hues  to  the  extraordinary  palette  where- 
with Nature  decks  these  American  groves  in  the 
"  Fall."  There  are  really  no  names  bright  enough 
for  the  blazing  reds,  the  burning  scarlets,  the  fiery 
vermilions  by  which  the  sugar-maple  suddenly 
betakes  herself  to  the  task  of  lighting  up  the 
forests  and  river  banks  as  soon  as  the  first  frost 
touches  her  scalloped  leaves.  But  the  other  trees 
and  shrubs  aid  in  the  general  effect  with  all  manner 
of  startling  or  tender  tints.  The  birch  lends  her 
sprays  of  delicate  pale  yellow,  swaying  lightly  above 
a  stem  of  silvery  white,  like  patines  of  thinly  beaten 
gold ;  the  beech  contributes  a  russet  deepening  into 
warm  brown;  the  hickory  a  mellow  brownish- 
yellow;  the  sassafras  a  crimson,  vividly  contrasting 
with  its  green  under  leaves  and  purple  ^vcd  spikes ; 
the  huckleberry  spreads  sheets  of  flame-coloured 
bush  all  over  the  openings ;  the  butternut  changes 
its  airy  foliage  to  saffron,  the  elm  to  amber,  the  oak 
to  dark  vandyke  brown,  and  the  swamp-willow  to 
citron  and  sienna  ;  while  minor  varieties  take  in- 
termediate shades  and  blendings,  until  there  are 
whole  woodsides  in  this  fail'  autumn  time  up  and 
down  New  England  which  absolutely  dazzle  and 
amaze  by  the  superlative  splendour  of  their  colour- 


ii4  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

ing.  And  all  these  delicate  golden  and  purple 
gleams,  alternating  and  mingling  with  the  ambers, 
the  russets,  the  burnt  siennas,  the  deep  rich  browns, 
the  pale  citrons,  and  sea-greens,  and  silvery  whites, 
and  soft  reds  of  the  forest  tribes,  and  sudden  flame- 
bursts  of  the  sassafras  leaves,  are  constantly  being 
heightened  by  the  sugar-maple's  flashes  of  blood- 
red  radiance,  and  explosions  of  burning  brilliance 
in  masses  of  scarlet  branches ;  the  whole  superb 
display  of  colour  being  harmoniously  backed  and 
blended  by  the  unchanging  dark  green  of  the  pines, 
which,  in  almost  every  sylvan  scene,  compose  the 
heart  of  these  gorgeously  apparelled  forests. 

We  pass  Worcester,  Mass.,  where  iron  and  steel 
wire  is  largely  manufactured,  prettily  situated  near 
Lake  Quinsigamond  and  Wachuset  Mountain ; 
and  next  Springfield,  famous  for  the  United  States 
Arsenal,  and  for  its  Hampden  Park  Racecourse ; 
and  so  arrive,  when  night  has  fallen,  amid  the 
electric  lamps  and  steam  vessels  of  Albany,  at  the 
head  of  the  Hudson  River  navigation.  When 
morning  breaks  we  are  flying  hard  along  the  south 
shore  of  Lake  Ontario,  towards  Buffalo,  hardly 
recovered  yet  from  the  demoralising  effects  of  a 
supper  served  at  the  station  of  Syracuse,  where 
only  twelve  minutes  were  allowed  for  six  or  seven 
courses.  The  astounded  stomach,  which  has  to 
undergo  such  an  experience — not  the  only  one  of 
the  kind  en  route — takes  time,  even  with  the 
strongest  temperament,  to  regain  its  pristine  equa- 
nimity. Buffalo  is  a  large  city,  and  does  much 
business  on   these  bright  waters  with  steamers  and 


OCEAX   TO   OCEAX.  115 

schooners,    besides    manufacturing    brass,    iron,    tin, 
and  copper  wares. 

Then  we  speed  on  to  the  shore  of  Lake  Erie, 
and  skirt  that  magnificent  inland  sea,  where  the 
fresh  water  is  seen  rolling  shorewards  in  billows 
which  might  do  credit  to  the  ocean  itself,  under 
stress  of  a  strong  north-east  wind.  Approaching 
Cleveland  a  melancholy  incident  occurs.  No  fence 
shuts  out  the  sovereign  people  here  from  the 
track  of  the  locomotive.  It  goes  tearing  along 
through  streets,  farmsteads,  fields,  and  crowded 
villages,  merely  sounding  a  bell  when  it  first  starts, 
and  afterwards  tootling  a  steam-horn  fitfully  when 
it  comes  near  a  level  crossing.  All  the  crossings 
are  level,  and  the  only  precaution  adopted  is  to  erect 
a  sign-post  at  the  spot,  inscribed,  "  Railway  track. 
Look  out  for  the  Locomotive!"  We  hear  our 
engine,  which  has  just  left  a  station,  give  a  more 
energetic  blast  than  is  usual,  and  then  the  brakes 
are  felt  and  speed  slackens ;  but,  alas !  we  have 
already  perceived  from  the  windows  the  broken 
body  of  a  poor  man  flung  to  the  side  of  the  track 
by  the  "cow-catcher,"  which  has  too  evidently  frac- 
tured the  skull  and  killed  him,  since  where  he  falls 
and  lies  a  thick  stream  of  blood  trickles  forth  upon 
the  ballast.  The  train  has  been  stopped  and 
backed,  and  the  corpse  is  gathered  up  and  placed 
on  a  lorry,  to  be  wheeled  to  the  station  just  quitted. 
On  the  spot  where  the  unhappy  man  was  tossed  ,1 
quantity  of  apples  lie  scattered  upon  the  ground, 
the  contents  of  his  bundle.  It  appears,  by  subse- 
quent information,  that   he  was  deaf  and  a  cripple. 


n6  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Imagine  anybody  out  of  America — obliged  to  walk 
with  a  crutch  and  stick — choosing  the  track  of  the 
express  train  for  his  promenade  !  The  engine-driver 
states  that  he  blew  the  signal  loudly,  but  in  vain  ; 
that  the  hapless  victim  was  attending  to  another 
train  coming  from  the  opposite  direction,  and  that 
the  locomotive-guard,  catching  him  behind  the  foot, 
flung  him  backwards  against  the  bars,  "  right  away  ; 
so  that  the  first  thing  he  knew  about  it  was  to  find 
himself  dead."  The  signs  of  this  sorrowful,  but 
too  natural  and  ordinary  accident,  are  quickly 
cleansed  from  the  engine-front ;  the  body  disappears 
to  some  shed  to  await  an  inquest,  with  the  crutch 
and  the  apples  lying  beside  it  on  the  track,  and  we 
go  on  our  way  to  Chicago,  while  he,  who  was  bound 
only  to  the  next  store,  has — by  the  mysterious  way- 
bill of  life — suddenly  taken  the  longest  journey  of 
all.     May  it  be  well  with  him  ! 

Cleveland  is  now  reached  ;  a  town  of  much  im- 
portance, with  160,000  inhabitants,  seated  on  Lake 
Erie,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cuyahoga  River.  The 
Ohio  Canal  and  the  Petroleum  ^Refineries  have 
mainly  created  its  prosperity.  By  reason  of  its 
well-shaded  streets  and  green  parks  and  gardens 
it  has  won  the  name  of  "  Forest  City."  Lake  View 
Cemetery  here,  one  of  those  beautiful  gardens  of 
the  dead  which  are  so  distinctive  of  America,  con- 
tains the  venerated  remains  of  President  Garfield, 
the  spot  of  whose  assassination,  marked  by  a  silver 
star,  at  the  railway  station  in  Washington,  we  had 
previously  seen.  Toledo,  planted  on  the  west 
end  of  Lake  Erie,  is  a  good  example  of  the  rapid 


OCEAN    TO    OCEAN.  .  17 

growth  of  American  towns.  Jn  18.50  it  had  only 
3(KX)  inhabitants,  and  it  is  now  peopled  by  (>(),(.)( H) 
souls,  and  ranks  third  after  Chicago  and  Milwaukee' 
in  the  Lake  grain  and  shipping  trade.  But  here, 
(putting  Ohio,  the  train  flies  through  the  north 
of  Indiana  State,  crossing  the  lower  end  of  that 
vast  peninsula  of  Michigan,  which  lies  between  the 
lake  of  the  same  name,  and  Lake  Huron.  Chicago 
is  reached  late  in  the  evening,  and  at  this  point  a 
transfer  must  be  made  across  the  city  from  the 
"  depot "  of  the  Boston  and  Albany  Railway  to 
that  of  the  Chicago  and  North- Western  Company. 
Now  we  obtain  seats  and  sleeping-berths  which 
will  only  once  be  changed  until  arrival  at  San 
Francisco,  and  one  settles  down  for  the  four  nights 
and  four  days  which  are  to  finish  the  transcon- 
tinental journey  with  all  the  feelings  of  tenants 
secure  from  eviction. 

The  glories  of  Chicago  have  been  sufficiently  sung 
by  others,  and  everybody  knows  what  a  Phoenix 
among  modern  cities  she  is.  Organised  as  a  town 
in  1833,  and  incorporated  in  1837,  she  then  had 
4170  inhabitants,  increased  in  1880  to  503,304,  and 
now  over  700,000.  The  great  conflagration  took 
place  in  1871,  destroying  17,500  houses  at  a  loss 
of  almost  200,000,000  dollars.  In  1874  another  lire 
destroyed  about  5,000,000  dollars  worth  of  property. 
The  new  city,  which  rose  superbly  from  the  ashes. 
has  buildings  in  its  business  parts  unsurpassed  by 
any  other  of  the  large  towns  on  the  continent.  It 
ranks  next  to  New  York  in  commercial  importance, 
and  in  1854  was  already  the  largest  grain  shipping 


n8  SEAS   AND   LANDS. 

port  of  the  world.  Its  cattle,  pork,  and  timber 
trades  stand  pre-eminent  over  any  similar  market 
in  the  world.  Manufacturing  is  also  very  largely 
carried  on,  employing  above  150,000  hands  in  pro- 
ductions very  varied.  The  storage  capacity  for  grain 
and  other  produce  is  about  40,000,000  bushels. 
It  is  the  greatest  railway  centre  on  the  continent, 
having  a  water  frontage  of  thirty-eight  miles,  taking 
in  the  river  and  its  branches.  This  is  not  includ- 
ing the  lake  front,  where  an  outer  harbour  is  now 
finished. 

Traversing  Illinois  by  night  the  Mississippi  is 
crossed,  here  only  a  little  river,  and  one  of  sand- 
banks and  scant  water,  compared  to  what  she  is 
destined  to  become  when  "  Mighty  Missouri " 
further  west  has  added  her  sister  wave.  Beyond 
the  Mississippi  the  State  of  Iowa  stretches  out  to 
view  interminable  fields  of  maize,  which  is  now 
chiefly  standing  in  shocks,  with  pumpkins,  shining 
like  helmets  of  gold,  intermixed  in  the  bountiful 
crop.  The  channels  traversed  here  all  drain  south- 
ward to  the  Mississippi,  and  the  country  continues 
rich  and  green  by  reason  of  their  waters,  while  the 
train  steams  forward  past  Boone,  on  the  Des  Moines 
River,  past  Loveland,  where  it  dips  into  the  Missouri 
Valley,  to  Council  Bluffs,  seat  of  Pottawattamisc 
County,  built  upon  high  cliffs  overlooking  the  Mis- 
souri Valley.  Here  a  prodigious  iron  bridge,  more 
than  a  mile  long,  lifts  the  traveller  across  the 
great  stream  to  Omaha,  in  Nebraska  State,  on  the 
farther  bank.  Planted  half  on  the  river  bed,  half 
on   the  lofty  brows  ranging  along  it,  Omaha  looks, 


OCEAX   TO    OCEAX.  ■  i9 

as  .she  is,  a  "big  place,"  with  a  thriving  business. 
We  shall  go  on  hence,  all  night,  along  the  Platte 
River,  where  the  towns  and  townships  still  cluster 
quite  thickly  as  far  as  Grand  Island. 

Then  the  veritable  prairie  begins,  which  has  for 
some  distance  past  been  announcing  its  advent  by- 
vast  stretches  of  grassy  plains  interlocking  with  the 
maize-fields  and  pumpkins,  the  clover  and  the  beech 
groves.  All  day  long,  this  hot  and  blue  Sunday, 
have  we  steamed  through  the  rolling  hillocks  and 
widespread,  sea-like  levels  of  a  measureless  expanse, 
wherein  grow  nothing  but  grasses,  burned  to  drab 
by  the  bright,  rainless  weather,  yet  maintaining,  and 
evidently  even  fattening,  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
fine  cattle  and  droves  of  horses.  Far  and  near 
roamed  these  beautiful  oxen  and  shapely  steeds, 
grazing ;  and  apparently  as  much  untended  as  the 
bygone  buffaloes,  their  predecessors,  whose  natural 
food,  the  "  buffalo  grass,"  covers  every  hollow.  Yet 
now  and  again  you  would  see  emerging  from  some 
dusty  hillside  the  figure  of  the  Cow-boy,  with  which 
South  Kensington  made  us  all  familiar.  He  would 
suddenly  appear,  mounted  on  a  wiry  buck-jumper, 
with  heavy  spurs  and  whip,  controlling  the  herd. 
We  have  by  this  time  left  behind  upon  the  wooded 
hills  and  valleys  the  large  centres  of  population. 
The  latest  stragglers  of  the  many  pines  and  maples 
have  gradually  yielded  to  the  prairie,  which  will 
show  no  trees,  or  hardly  any.  The  knots  of  shops 
and  huts  occurring  here  and  there  along  the  line 
call  themselves  "cities"  still,  but  are  merely  villages 
for  the   ranchers  to  shop  at,  and   whence  they  niav 


i2o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

entrain  their  produce.  A  little  wooden  church, 
painted  red  and  green,  with  three  graves  only  in 
its  churchyard  of  an  acre,  testifies  to  the  newness 
of  one  settlement  which  we  pass.  At  another, 
Ogallala,  a  frame  and  wattled  building,  proudly 
inscribed  "Opera  House,"  might  perhaps  hold  one 
hundred  people. 

The  real  and  almost  innumerable  inhabitants  of 
the  Prairie,  as  we  now  behold  it,  are  those  singular 
creatures  the  prairie-dogs,  to  be  seen  in  thousands 
all  through  Nebraska  from  the  windows  of  the 
train.  Everybody  has  read  descriptions  of  these 
odd  little  animals,  and  many,  no  doubt,  who  peruse 
these  lines  have  had  opportunities  of  examining 
them  to  better  advantage  than  when  natural  history 
is  studied  at  twenty-five  miles  an  hour.  But  you 
may  certainly  see  as  many  as  ever  you  please  to 
watch  in  the  Nebraska  prairies,  since  the  "dogs" 
have  grown  entirely  accustomed  to  the  passing- 
locomotive,  and  regard  it  and  the  cars  from  their 
"cities"  with  as  calm  a  nonchalance  as  suburban 
dwellers  in  London  exhibit,  smoking  in  their  back 
gardens.  At  intervals  of  three  or  four  miles  all 
along  the  track,  for  as  far  as  one  hundred  miles, 
these  "cities"  are  encountered,  groups  of  hillocks 
and  burrows,  where  the  light  soil  of  the  prairie  has 
been  scratched  out,  and  heaped  in  a  neat  mound 
over  the  excavation.  On  the  top  of  this,  or  near  at 
hand,  sit  the  prairie-dogs,  or  stand — for  they  have  a 
rabbit-like  fashion  of  rising  upon  their  hindquarters 
and  folding  their  fore-feet,  in  a  meditative  manner, 
across  their  wdiite  breasts.     Their  general  colour  is 


OCEAN    TO    OCEAN.  121 

sandy-brown,  with  a  dark  collar.  When  they  run 
it  is  in  a  style  partly  resembling  a  dog,  partly  a  rat, 
and  they  cock  aloft  a  short  tail  which  they  possess 
in  a  most  comically  important  way.  Once  or  twice 
I  observed  the  small  owl  perched  on  a  prairie-dog's 
hillock,  which  is  well  known  to  be  a  joint  tenant  of 
his  burrow,  together  with  the  rattlesnake;  but  no 
specimen  of  the  latter,  of  course,  came  under  such 
rapid  observation.  The  wind  blows  all  the  line  dust 
away  from  the  stuff  turned  out  by  the  "  dog," 
leaving  a  pile  of  smooth  pebbles,  so  that  he  seems 
to  have  taken  to  mining  operations  for  gold  or 
jewels.  There  will  be  from  fifty  to  three  hundred 
burrows  in  a  "city,"  and  two  or  three  "dogs" 
visible  on  or  near  each  ;  and,  seeing  that  they  are 
generally  located  far  from  water,  the  prairie-dog 
must  either  be  indifferent  to  drinking,  or  must  find 
what  moisture  he  needs  in  roots  and  succulent 
stems. 

Near  Cheyenne  we  leave  Nebraska,  and,  touching 
a  corner  of  Colorado,  enter  Wyoming,  the  southern 
regions  of  which  we  traverse  all  Sunday  night, 
finding  ourselves  on  Monday  morning  amid  the  wild 
granitic  mountains,  called  Wahsateh  and  Uintah. 
These  are  offshoots  of  the  Rocky  Range,  and  gaunt 
avant-gardes  of  the  desolate,  arid,  and  yellow  upland 
basin  in  which  lies  the  great  Salt  Lake,  now  very 
near.  It  seems  strange  that,  after  painfully  crossing 
the  interminable  plains  and  ranges  which  the  "  Union 
Pacific"  now  so  lightly  traverses,  Brigham  Young 
and  his  Mormons  should  have  finally  halted  in  the 
forbidden  region  here  reached  when  the  green  sierra 


122  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

lay  not  far  beyond.  Grim,  bare  weather-worn  boulders 
of  red  and  drab  granite  of  enormous  size  line  the 
dusky  track,  melancholy  basins  of  dark  ochreous 
sand,  dotted  with  the  everlasting  "  sage-brush " 
alternate  with  awful  crags  opening  into  gloomy 
canyons — a  land  of  exceeding  loneliness  and  de- 
pressing apparent  barrenness,  where  a  ring  of  stones 
and  a  wooden  cross  now  and  again  marks  the  grave 
of  some  forgotten  pioneer,  and  plentiful  bleached 
skeletons  of  cattle  and  horses  show  how  difficult  and 
costly  was  the  overland  voyage  of  the  old  time,  for 
the  "  prairie  schooner,"  as  the  emigrant's  waggon 
was  styled. 

A  happier  record  is  to  be  observed  painted  on 
the  granite  rocks  at  Summit,  where  "  Troy  Jack " 
and  "  Jemmy  Kidd "  have  inscribed  their  honest 
names  on  the  occasion,  as  they  let  us  know,  of 
fixing  the  highest  rails  in  this  part  of  the  over- 
land line,  and  the  difference  between  steam  and 
the  ancient  fashion  of  crossing  the  continent  is 
illustrated,  to  the  honour  and  glory  of  those  good 
workers,  as  we  run  by  more  than  one  slow  party  of 
settlers  "  on  the  trail."  Thundering  down  the  in- 
clines, toiling  laboriously  with  two  engines  up  the 
heavy  grades,  the  "  Paraiso  " — as  our  car  is  named — 
rattles  finally  into  Ogden  station  early  on  Monday 
morning.  A  batch  of  cow-boys  in  the  station-yard 
shows  that  ranching  goes  on  even  in  these  seeming 
deserts.  A  group  of  lied  Indians,  in  parti-coloured 
blankets,  hangs  disconsolately  about  the  place — the 
first  yet  seen  of  the  former  owners  of  the  land.  The 
huge  hills   round  the   hot  town   are  smoking  with 


OCEAN   TO    OCEAX.  123 

brushwood  fires,  lighted  to  improve  the  pasturage. 
The  Great  Halt  Lake  lies  near  the  depot,  glittering 
green  in  colour,  under  the  strong  sunlight,  and 
belted  with  a  dazzling  border  of  the  white  alkali. 
which  covers  every  flat  and  lowland  in  the  vicinity. 

Now  we  coast  the  northern  shores  of  this  Dead 
Sea  of  Central  North  America,  which  recalls  all 
the  features  of  Lake  Asphaltites  in  Palestine.  The 
same  parched  red  mountains  are  ranged  around  it, 
from  whose  sides  and  from  the  adjourning  "  wadis  " 
is  washed  the  bitter  saline  efflorescence  which 
glistens  all  over  the  face  of  the  plain  and  girdles 
the  emerald  water  with  a  border  of  silver.  But 
that  water  is  poisonous  as  vitriol,  and  the  silver- 
edged  banks  are  fatal  to  all  animal  life.  Nor  can 
there  exist  any  more  dreary  little  settlements  than 
these  which  cluster  round  each  isolated  station. 
Skirting  for  some  hours  the  shallows  of  the  great 
dismal  sea,  our  train  plunges  into  the  upper  portion 
of  the  Utah  Desert,  and  hence,  for  many  hundreds  of 
miles,  the  track  lies  through  a  bleak,  barren,  mono- 
tonous region  of  naked  mountains  and  treeless, 
hungry,  stony  plains,  for  ever  glistening  with  the 
bitter  alkali,  for  ever  covered  with  the  brittle,  brist- 
ling, dull-grey  "sage-brush,*'  unredeemed  by  the 
wing  of  a  single  bird  or  the  footmark  of  a  solitary 
furred  creature. 

All  day  long,  and  all  night  long,  and  all  day 
long  again,  the  overland  train  thunders  on,  hurtles 
through  the  canyons,  and  rattles  over  the  basins  of 
this  lonely  land,  where  the  pioneers  of  the  line 
had    to    wasre    fierce    battle    with    the    lied     Indians 


i24  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

more  than  once  in  order  to  get  their  sleepers  laid 
and  their  rails  fixed.  Now  and  then,  at  the  way- 
side stations,  a  group  of  the  aboriginals  may  be 
observed,  with  gay  blankets  and  grimy,  savage 
faces,  subdued  into  dazed  acquiescence  with  the 
new  order  of  things,  which  has  taken  from  them 
their  desolate  uplands  and  the  buffalo-grazing 
grounds  below.  If  they  wish  to  travel  by  the  fire- 
horse,  which,  along  with  the  fire-water,  has  doomed 
their  tribes,  the  administration  permits  them  to 
squat  on  the  tail-boards  of  the  cars,  where  they 
enjoy  the  dust,  and  jar,  and  smoke  of  forty  miles 
per  hour,  as  a  perfectly  delightful  •  luxury.  Not 
until  Reno  is  reached,  about  280  miles  from  San 
Francisco,  do  we  emerge  from  that  awful  wilder- 
ness of  Utah  and  Nevada,  which  the  Union  Pacific 
has  pierced,  and  rendered  a  bridge  between  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific.  At  Reno  a  little  mountain 
stream,  the  Truckee,  transforms  the  waste  into  a 
garden  of  green  crops  and  poplar  groves,  showing 
that  nothing  is  needed  except  water  to  give  to  all 
those  silent  glistening  alkali  flats  and  red  naked 
uplands  the  harvests  of  Iowa  and  the  pastures  of 
Nebraska.  One  learns  the  immeasurable  value  of 
a  river  in  noting  how  the  little  Truckee,  as  far  as 
her  slender  stream  can  be  spread,  causes  plenty  to 
spring  from  desolation,  and  the  blank  white  wilder- 
ness to  laugh  with  verdure. 

At  this  point  of  the  prodigious  journey  the  upper 
peaks  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  came  into  sight,  and  we 
commence  the  ascent  of  the  Californian  Alps.  The 
wilderness    lies,  at    last,  behind    us ;    before   us   are 


OCEAN   TO    OCEAN.  125 

gigantic  mountain-walls,  planted  thickly  with  pine 
forests,  rugged  with  hanging  boulders,  lined  here 
and  there  with  long  slides  of  timber,  constructed  by 
the  lumberers,  in  order  to  send  down  the  dressed 
trunks  from  the  upper  woods.  Just  beyond  Truckee, 
at  an  elevation  of  more  than  5000  feet,  we  cross  the 
dividing  line  between  the  States  of  California  and 
Nevada,  the  latter  of  which,  albeit  larger  than  all 
Ireland,  contains  only  a  population  of  12,000  souls. 
But  she  is  rich  in  silver  and  gold  mines,  and  in 
unlimited  possibilities,  and  she,  moreover,  runs 
southward — down  from  these  wintry  highlands, 
where  even  now  the  snow  lies  thick  amid  the  pines, 
to  the  burning  regions  of  Yucca  and  Yuma  upon 
the  Colorado  River. 

On  the  Divide,  at  a  station  named  "  Summit,"  we 
top  the  snowy  Sierra,  and  are  at  an  elevation  of 
7400  feet.  The  air  is  rarefied,  as  well  as  severely 
chilly,  and  greatcoats  and  shawls  are  worn  even  in 
our  well-closed  car.  The  heavy  snowstorm  of  last 
night,  the  first  of  the  season,  has  thickly  loaded 
all  the  great  pines  with  white  wreaths,  and  given  to 
the  tall  peaks  around  a  very  wintry  aspect.  From 
this  point  to  the  blue  Canyon  below,  the  views  are 
magnificent,  but  the  endless  line  of  snow-sheds  cuts 
them  off  continually  from  the  eager  gaze.  These 
sheds  extend  for  twenty-seven  miles  in  an  almost 
unbroken  series,  built  solidly  of  timber  to  guard  the 
trains  from  avalanches  and  drifts;  and  they  fre- 
quently take  fire,  to  the  heavy  loss  of  the  company 
and  the  serious  delay  of  passengers.  The  track 
boldly  curving,  and  ascending  or  descending   heavy 


i26  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

grades,  skirts  for  some  time  a  large  mountain  tarn, 
called  Donner  Lake,  from  the  explorer  of  that  name, 
who  perished  by  its  margin  with  all  his  party. 
Enormous  in  girth  and  altitude  are  the  firs  growing 
on  the  mountain-sides  hereabouts,  and  marvellous  are 
the  vistas  as  one  glances  through  their  huge  trunks 
and  branches  laced  with  the  snow,  at  the  deep 
valleys  lying  below  the  track.  We  are  two  hours 
late  in  our  transit  of  3600  miles — no  very  serious 
unpunctuality — but  the  engineer  is  anxious  to  be 
"  on  time  "  in  Sacramento  ;  and  the  long  train,  with 
its  cars  each  weighing  twenty  tons,  rolls  down  the 
Pacific  slope  at  a  pace  to  make  nervous  persons 
uncomfortable.  And  now,  as  if  by  magic,  the  scene 
changes  while  we  rapidly  drop  to  the  sunny  uplands 
and  foot-hills  of  Alta  California.  The  snow  dis- 
appears, the  trees  multiply  in  variety  and  number, 
wild  blossoms  deck  the  undergrowth — the  rich  red 
soil  glows  in  the  sunshine  through  the  full  foliage — 
we  fly  through  lovely  groves,  through  verdant  clear- 
ings, then  clusters  of  joretty  cottages,  to  a  region  of 
vineyards  and  orchards.  Lower  down,  at  Dutch 
Flat,  we  come  to  where  the  gold-miners  have  washed 
away  a  whole  mountain-side  with  their  hydraulic 
pipes,  and  lower  still  we  pass  a  Chinese  village,  and 
rattle  merrily  down  to  the  Sacramento  plain,  whence 
'Frisco  is  distant  only  ninety  miles.  Speedily  these 
are  run  over,  and  reaching  Port  Costa  the  entire 
train  is  put  on  board  an  immense  ferry-steamer,  and 
we  cross  an  inlet  of  the  sea,  for  Oakland,  the 
terminus  of  the  long  line.  Here  another  ferry- 
steamer  receives  and  wafts  us  over  the  Sacramento, 


OCEAN   TO    OCEAN.  127 

and    we    repair    to    the    big     Palace    Hotel    at  San 

Francisco,    neither    fatigued    nor    bored     with  the 
traject  of  3600  miles  from  Massachusetts  Bay  to  the 

Golden    Gate,    although    our    longest    stop    on  the 
passage  has  not  been  above  seventy  minutes. 

San  Francisco,  Oct  9,  1889. 


CHAPTER    X. 

SAN    FRANCISCO. 

The  capital  of  California  is  like  nothing  else  in  the 
United  States.  A  city  only  forty  years  old,  with  a 
population  of  nearly  360,000  souls,  with  rateable 
estate  valued  at  1,800,000  dollars,  with  a  vast 
maritime  commerce  filling  its  magnificent  bay ; 
north  and  south  of  it  a  territory  of  boundless  fer- 
tility, east  of  it  the  Sierra  Range,  holding  up  to 
the  sun  millions  of  acres  of  luxuriant  forests,  rich 
vineyard  soil,  and  terraces  where  the  bounty  of 
Nature  gives  almost  anything  for  the  asking,  to  say 
nothing  of  its  out-turn  of  gold,  which  from  1848  to 
1888  was  worth  over  1,000,000,000  dollars— such  is 
San  Francisco.  She  bears  everywhere  amid  her 
exuberant  prosperity  tokens  of  her  rapid  growth. 
The  drill-marks  are  not  as  yet  worn  out  from  her 
granite  road-stones,  even  in  the  busiest  thorough- 
fares ;  the  finest  paved  ways  in  her  proudest  streets 
are  interrupted  by  patches  of  rotten  plank  ;  splendid 
palaces  of  commerce  or  pleasure  alternate  with  low 
shanties  of  framework  or  adobe  huts  ;  and  in  her 
very  midst  nestles  the  hideous  and  uncleanly 
Chinese  quarter,  which,  when  really  finished,  she 
will    not   tolerate.     It   almost    takes   the   breath  of 


m 

I  o  .  ..  | .  ft  &:/  fe 

\mmmn 


e_  5;  :C2    lrjt3    (^a 


\ :! 


■ 


5    ^irs* 


-^s 


^ 


&2 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  129 

statisticians  away  when  they  attempt  to  recite  the 
facts  and  figures  of  the  birth  and  development  of 
this  extraordinary  capital.  Its  first  house  was 
only  built  in  1835,  when  the  place  was  called 
"  Yerba  Buena,"  from  a  medicinal  root  which  grows 
wild  here.  At  that  time  it  transacted  a  poor  little 
trade  with  Indians  in  oil  and  hides.  One  day  a 
settler  named  Marshall  found  gold  at  Coloma,  and 
the  tide  of  adventurers  began  to  How  which  carried 
"  'Frisco  "  to  the  high-water  mark  of  affluence.  The 
"  rush  "  is  long  ago  over  ;  the  ships  which  brought 
the  gold-diggers  by  thousands  are  doing  duty  as 
coal  hulks  or  Hour  stores ;  the  red  wood  and  cedar 
bushes  have  grown  over  the  spots  on  the  Sierra 
where  the  first  miners  got  their  dust  and  nuggets. 
But  California  has  found  better  things  than  gold  or 
silver  in  her  soil — her  forests,  her  trade,  her  farms 
and  dairies,  and,  above  all,  in  her  delightful  climate, 
where  anybody  can  work  all  the  day  through,  from 
one  year's  end  to  another.  The  gold  fever  has 
abated,  and  left  her  all  the  healthier,  with  the  habit, 
however,  of  prodigious  affluence,  and  a  passion  for 
that  solid  coinage  of  single  and  double  eagles,  which 
it  is  a  pleasure  to  handle  after  the  grubby  one  and 
five  dollar  notes  of  the  Eastern  States. 

The  city  stands  on  the  inner  slope  of  a  singular 
peninsula,  planted  between  a  gull'  and  the  ocean. 
The  ground  it  now  sits  on  has  been  pushed  forward 
into  the  sea  (the  hills  at  the  back  being  steep),  so 
that  there  are  to-day  paved  streets  where  in  1ST.*  large 
ships  used  to  ride  at  anchor.  The  business  quarters 
are  compactly  built,  and  the  city,  as  a  whole,  covers 


i3o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

an  area  of  about  eleven  square  miles.  Built  in  the 
shape  of  an  amphitheatre,  upon  three  hills,  it 
presents  a  striking  appearance  when  seen  from  the 
sea  or  bay,  and  is  regularly  laid  out  with  broad 
streets,  vilely  paved.  The  principal  thoroughfare  is 
Market  Street,  Kearney  and  Montgomery  Streets 
are  fashionable  promenades,  with  handsome  retail 
shops.  Pine  and  California  Streets  are  what  Wall 
Street  is  to  New  York,  or  Broad  Street  and  Lombard 
Street  to  London,  the  chief  centres  for  bankers, 
brokers,  and  insurance  companies.  California  Street 
Hill  is  perhaps  the  most  "genteel  "  portion  of  the 
town.  Sacramento,  Dupont,  Jackson,  Pacific,  and 
Commercial  Streets  form  the  Chinese  quarter.  The 
tramways  are  the  urban  wonder  of  San  Francisco. 
You  can  go  everywhere,  at  all  times,  up  and  down 
hill,  landwards  or  seawards,  without  a  minute's 
delay,  by  the  ubiquitous  car — not  electric,  as  in 
Boston,  but  propelled  by  endless  wire  ropes  running 
under  the  street  cobbles.  Whenever  you  walk  the 
rumble  of  the  wheels  and  ropes  under  your  footsteps 
will  remind  you  that  it  is  San  Francisco,  and  the 
paving  of  the  thoroughfares  is  so  rough  and  loose 
that  driving,  except  on  the  trams,  becomes  a  real 
]ienance.  Thus  "all  the  world"  throngs  the  cars, 
which  fly  to  and  fro,  completely  replacing  omnibuses, 
which  do  not  exist,  and  cabs,  the  hire  of  which,  as  in 
all  American  cities,  is  prohibitively  dear/ 

A  large  proportion  of  the  people  in  the  streets  is 
Mongolian,  and  after  a  little  time  you  must  make 
the  prescribed  ex2>edition  to  the  Chinese  quarter. 
I    had    the    mistaken    notion    that    the  Californian 


SAN  FXANCISCO.  131 

Canton  was  situated  by  the  water's  edge,  and  alwavs 
wondered  why  the  San  Franciscans  could  not  put 
up  more  patiently  with  what  1  had  imagined  to  he 
a  sort  of  Flowery  Land  Wapping.  But  I  wonder 
no  longer  at  the  impatience  of  the  San  Franciscans 
against  the  almond-eyed  folk,  nor  at  the  occasional 
violence  of  the  "hoodlums;"  for  the  Chinese  city 
here,  which  I  have  again  and  again  explored,  is 
a  most  unmitigated  nuisance  to  the  Californian 
capital,  and  a  perpetual  danger  to  its  health  and 
peace.  It  is  lodged — like  a  portion  of  another 
planet — in  the  very  heart  of  the  city,  close  to 
Kearney  Street,  one  of  the  chief  business  quarters, 
and  near  to  other  great  and  important  thorough- 
fares, the  value  and  salubrity  of  which  it  most 
seriously  impairs.  You  come  upon  it  quite  suddenly. 
You  turn  abruptly  from  a  causeway  full  of  splendid 
shops  and  handsome  restaurants  into  narrow  lanes 
where  the  odd  names  of  pig-tailed  merchants  alter- 
nate in  English  characters  with  long  swinging 
tablets  in  blue,  yellow,  and  vermilion,  covered  with 
the  Chinese  inscriptions  denoting  their  trades  and 
commodities.  The  sensitive  nostril  recognises  the 
locality  before  the  eyes  light  upon  it  by  a  peculiar 
and  wholly  indescribable  evil  odour  which  must  for 
ever  henceforward  remain  associated  with  the  thought 
of  China  and  the  Chinese.  They  do  not  live  in  this 
extraordinary  quarter,  but  rather  wallow  like  pigs 
and  burrow  like  rats.  The  cellars  of  every  low  and 
filthy  tenement  in  the  twenty  or  thirty  streets  in- 
habited by  them  are  choked  with  Chinese,  packed 
awav  at   niii'ht    like   sardines.      You   enter  anv   one 


1 32  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

of  these,  and  plunge  down  a  rotten  staircase  into 
a  dark,  narrow  passage,  on  either  side  of  which  are 
ranged  double  bunks,  one  above  the  other,  like 
those  on  board  the  most  crowded  emigrant  ship. 
In  the  passage-way  some  are  frizzling  absolutely 
repulsive  articles  of  diet  over  lamps  or  charcoal 
fires :  in  the  bunks,  stretched  on  bits  of  matting, 
others  are  lying  asleep,  or  mending  their  unwashed 
clothing,  or  smoking  tobacco  and  opium.  There 
is  no  air,  nor  any  attempt  to  provide  it.  The  daily 
and  nightly  arrangements  of  these  Chinese  are,  in 
truth,  one  long  and  constant  contempt  of  every 
accepted  principle  of  sanitation ;  yet  they  live  and 
thrive,  and  are  reputed  by  no  means  especially  un- 
healthy. 

Thanks  to  the  sandy  soil  on  which  San  Fran- 
cisco is  built,  the  Chinese  landlord  or  tenant  of 
a  house  in  this  quarter  can  delve  as  deeply  as  he 
likes  in  the  way  of  subterranean  dens,  and  many  of 
these  underground  burrows  go  thirty  feet  into  the 
earth.  Those  who  were  smoking  opium  in  the 
lodging-bunks  were  only  amateurs,  taking  a  whiff 
of  second  or  third  rate  stuff  after  the  day's  labours. 
The  serious  opium-smoker  frequents  establishments 
provided  for  the  purpose,  some  of  which  we  visited. 
Here  he  reclines  on  a  mat,  on  an  upper  or  lower 
berth  of  the  close,  stifling  Closet,  which  holds 
perhaps,  a  dozen  votaries  of  the  anodyne.  An 
attendant  furnishes  a  little  smoky  oil  lamp,  a  lychee 
shell  full  of  the  black  sticky  extract,  a  long  brass 
pin,  and  a  thick  pipe  made  of  bamboo,  with  a  tiny 
metal  bowl  fixed  midway  upon   its  stem.     Reclining 


SAN   FRANC/SCO.  1.33 

with  his  head  upon  a  wooden  pillow,  the  votarv, 
who  is  far  beyond  that  stage  of  self-consciousness 
or  self-respeet,  which  objects  to  being  watched  by 
"foreign  devils,"  dips  the  pin  in  the  treacly-looking 
mess,  rolls  it  round  and  round  into  a  black  bead, 
which  he  roasts  in  the  smoky  lamp  flame  till  it 
bubbles,  fizzles,  swells,  and  partially  dries  up.  Then 
he  pushes  it  into  the  small  bowl,  and  holding  bowl 
and  charge  against  the  lamp-wick,  draws  into  his 
lungs  the  two  or  three  "bouchees"  of  fume  afforded 
by  the  pillule  of  drug,  expelling  them  afterwards 
through  his  nostrils.  At  once  he  wipes  out  the 
bowl,  rolls  another  pill  on  the  pin,  roasts  it  in  the 
flame,  and  inhales  the  fumes,  till  you  observe  the 
eyes  with  which  he  watches  the  process  grow  more 
and  more  dim,  and  the  pupils  more  contracted,  and 
suddenly  he  is  motionless  and  lost  in  stupor — the 
operation  is  complete — soul  and  body  are  away 
together  in  "  Poppy-Land,"  where  for  an  hour  or 
two  there  will  be  no  cares,  no  tasks,  no  home-sick 
longings  for  distant  China  ;  no  unkind  "  Melican 
man*'  to  make  life  a  burden;  no  life  at  all  except 
a  heavy,  vague,  soft,  sodden  trance,  traversed  by 
dreams  which  seem  like  pictures  outlined  in  moon- 
beams upon  the  darkness. 

There  are  those  who  think  that  opium  keeps  the 
Chinaman  from  fever  and  pestilence  in  such  horribly 
close  lairs,  and  certainly  his  ordinary  diet  seems  to 
need  some  corrective.  We  explored  the  groceries, 
eating-houses,  and  druggist  shops  of  the  region  with 
much  suffering  to  the  olfactory  nerves,  and  total 
loss  of  any  appetite  for  lunch.     Food  may  be  simple, 


i34  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

and  even  coarse,  without  becoming  repulsive,  but 
the  Chinese  "  charcutier "  aims  at  and  attains  the 
ghastly  and  the  grotesque  in  all  his  wares.  The 
carcasses  of  his  pigs  suggest  murder  rather  than 
slaughter,  so  blood-boltered  are  they,  if  fresh — so 
mangled  and  glistening  with  red  grease,  if  pickled. 
The  very  aspect  of  his  strings  of  sausage  would  turn 
the  stomach  of  a  saveloy  vendor  in  the  New  Cut. 
He  splits  open  his  ducks  and  geese,  and  flattens 
them,  insides  and  all,  into  frightful,  oily,  black 
trapezoids  of  shining  leather.  In  one  jar  he  keeps 
decomposed  shrimps,  in  another  rats'  tails,  in  a 
third  the  eyes  of  fishes,  in  a  fourth  onions  soaked 
in  treacle,  while  shoots  of  bamboo  pickled  in  brine 
and  sea-slugs  rolled  in  sugar  occupy  other  recep- 
tacles. A  particular  delicacy  was  pointed  out  in 
the  shape  of  a  dozen  lizards  spitted  together  on 
a  stick,  and  dried  in  the  form  of  mouldy  grey 
vine-leaves.  The  witches  of  Macbeth  might,  in 
fact,  have  accumulated  all  the  ingredients  of  their 
cauldron,  by  one  marketing,  at  the  terrible  em- 
porium where  the  above  articles  were  inspected. 
In  a  Mongolian  pharmacy,  hard  by,  the  materia 
medica  was  even  more  astonishing.  The  chemists 
of  the  Celestial  Kingdom  deal  still  in  all  those 
strange,  far-fetched,  and  extremely  nasty  prepara- 
tions which  physicked  our  Middle  Ages.  Among 
the  ordinary  prescriptions  hanging  on  the  file  of 
this  Chinese  "  Apothecaries'  Hall "  was  one  which, 
being  translated,  ran,  "  Let  him  take,  at  the  third 
hour,  with  root  of  lily,  dried  dust  of  snake,  bone, 
so  much,  and  of  red  pepper,  and  of  willow  shavings. 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  135 

and  the  dung  of  bats  in  oil."  The  establishment 
was  full  of  slicing  machines,  cutting  up  all  sorts 
of  leaves  and  twigs  into  medicinal  form,  and  a 
Chinaman  in  blue  shirt  and  pigtail  was  seated  on 
a  bench  working  with  his  feet  an  iron  wheel  up 
and  down  a  metal  groove,  in  order  to  grind  the 
ingredients  of  pills  and  potions  as  unsavoury  as 
that   mentioned. 

In  traversing  the  narrow  alleys  and  underground 
burrows  of  China  Town  at  midnight,  other  and 
less  describable  scenes  met  the  eye,  for  morality 
of  the  non-Confucian  kind  is  simply  ignored,  and 
there  were  whole  streets  of  little  lattice-windowed 
tenements  which  would  have  made  the  Cities  of 
the  Plain  appear  comparatively  respectable.  In  the 
principle  theatre — where  we  sat  on  the  stage — an 
interminable  comedy  was  being  enacted  by  boy- 
players  draped  as  women,  to  the  music  of  an  orchestra 
which  spared  no  discord  that  gongs,  cymbals,  and 
squeaking  strings  could  produce.  The  large  audience 
of  Chinamen — all  in  the  same  dark  blue  garb — and 
packed  like  herrings — seemed  to  enjoy  the  piece, 
and  found  no  incongruity,  apparently,  in  a  party  of 
strange  foreigners  sitting  and  smoking  in  front  <>t" 
the  footlights. 

From  the  theatre  to  the  chief  Chinese  restaurant 
was  a  natural  transition,  and  here  was  seen  the 
liautc  cuisine  of  the  quarter,  odd  compounds  and 
viands  served  in  innumerable  little  bowls  and  dishes, 
and  all  partaken  of  by  means  of  chopsticks,  which 
the  guests  used  with  incredible  dexterity.  It 
would* be,   however,  a    drawback   to   the   pleasure  of 


136  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

supping  with  them  that  each  man,  after  thrusting 
the  chopsticks  into  his  opened  mouth,  inserts 
them  again  in  the  common  dish  containing  the 
ragout  or  stew,  and  twiddles  about  the  floating 
morsels,  until  he  has  selected  a  tid-bit  to  his  taste. 
There  are  altogether  some  40,000  of  the  pig- 
tailed  people  dwelling  thus  in  the  very  centre  of 
Ban  Francisco ;  and,  albeit  they  are  an  industrious, 
peaceable,  and  interesting  race,  their  deplorable 
social  habits,  and  the  way  in  which  their  cheap 
and  resolute  labour  undersells  that  of  the  native- 
born  Californians,  render  it  certain  that  they  must 
be  some  day  or  other  deported,  although  the  decree 
may  breed  trouble  with  the  Government  of  the 
Vermilion  Pencil. 

One  of  the  most  usual,  but  also  most  pleasant, 
excursions  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Ban  Francisco 
is  through  the  Park  to  CI  if?  House,  whence  I  had 
my  very  first  gaze  over  the  expanse  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  All  oceans  look,  of  course,  pretty  much 
alike — yet  it  cannot  be  without  emotion  that  one 
sees  for  the  first  time  even  the  verge  of  that  vast 
water,  which  washes  the  continents  of  America, 
North  and  South,  and  of  Asia,  extends  its  pro- 
digious volume  from  Pole  to  Pole,  and  contains 
all  those  lovely  archipelagoes  of  the  Southern  main, 
where  the  climate  is  as  perfect  as  the  islanders  are 
charming,  and  where  Nature  on  sea  and  land  is  at 
her  best.  It  is  a  great  temptation  to  turn  aside 
southwards  and  visit  Honolulu,  only  a  week's 
voyage  across  yonder  blue  waves.  But  our  steamer, 
the  Belgic,  is  bound  directly  to  Japan,  and  we  must 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  137 

forego  the  attractions  of  these  "  Edens  of  the  purple 
main." 

The  Park,  created  from  the  bare  sand  of  the 
peninsula  overlooking  "  the  Golden  (late,"  is  beau- 
tiful and  green  with  groves  of  bine  gum,  dwarf 
palms,  aloes,  cedar,  pepper  trees,  and  plentiful 
flowering  shrubs.  Crowds  of  happy  people  drive, 
ride,  and  walk  out  to  the  band-stand  here,  whence 
you  can  constantly  hear  the  barking  of  the  seals, 
which  live  upon  two  isolated  rocks  under  the  steep 
shore.  Hundreds  of  these  creatures  sprawl  on  the 
ledges  of  the  crags,  or  disport  themselves  in  the 
billows — great  monsters,  some  black,  some  grey, 
some  snowy  white,  safe  in  their  sea  fastness,  and 
wisely  protected  by  the  Government.  There  is  no 
other  place  on  earth  where  the  sight  could  be  thus 
seen  of  the  ocean-flocks  of  Neptune,  placidly  herded 
as  if  on  a  remote  and  unfrequented  spot — diving, 
fishing,  sporting,  and  basking  in  the  mild  sunshine, 
without  any  fear  of  man.  To  the  right  opens  the 
picturesque  portal  of  the  "Golden  Gate,"  a  mile 
wide  between  its  posts  of  yellow  sand,  and  always 
lively  with  vessels  going  and  coming. 

It  is  the  last  point  in  our  American  wander- 
ings, and  we  shall  see  the  shores  fade  behind  us, 
with  regrets  due  to  that  unbounded  friendliness  and 
faultless  grace  and  goodness  of  which  I  have  been 
an  unworthy  object  in  every  city  and  at  every  stage 
of  the  journey.  Of  all  this  it  would  be  improper, 
as  it  is  impossible,  adequately  to  write ;  sullice  it  to 
observe  that  no  language  could  ever  express  the 
sense    which    overwhelms  me  of  the  gencrositv  and 


138  SEAS  ANJD  LANDS. 

goodwill  of  Americans  to  one  whom  they  have  been 
pleased  to  regard  as  a  friend.  In  quiting  the 
continent  I  have  published  the  subjoined  which  is 
at  once  a  farewell  and  an  aspiration  : — 

Sonnet   of  Adieu. 

America !  at  this,  thy  Golden  Gate, 

New-travelled  from  those  green  Atlantic  coves, 
Parting — I  make  my  reverence  !     It  behoves 

With  backward  steps  to  quit  a  queen  in  state. 

Land  !  of  all  lands  most  fair,  and  free,  and  great  ; 
Land  of  those  countless  lips,  wherefrom  I  heard 

Sweet  speech  of  Shakespeare — keep  it  consecrate 
For  noble  uses !     Land  of  Freedom's  Bird, 
Fearless  and  proud !     So  make  him  soar,  that  stirred 

By  generous  joy,  all  men  may  learn  of  thee 
A  larger  life  ;  and  Europe,  undeterred 

By  ancient  wrecks,  dare  also  to  be  free 

Body  and  Soul ;  seeing  thine  Eagle  gaze — 

Undazzled — upon  Freedom's  Sun,  full-blaze  ! 

Truly  it  is  difficult  to  limit  the  excursions  of 
imagination  in  thinking  what  this  splendid  and 
wonderful  State  of  California,  and  the  Union  gene- 
rally, may  and  must  become  in  the  way  of  material 
development  and  mass  of  population.  Look  at  this 
table,  which  shows  the  growth  of  the  latter  from 
the  Revolution  until  to-dav  : — 


SAN  FRANCISCO. 


»V» 


Year. 

Population. 

1790 

3,929,214 

1800 

5,308,483 

1810 

7,239,881 

1820 

9,633,822 

1830 

1 2,866,020 

1840 

17,069,453 

1850 

23,11)1,876 

18(30 

31,443,321 

1870 

38,558,371 

1880 

50,155,000 

1890 

67,240,000 

Average 


Increase 

in  ten  via 


35.1 
36.3 
33.1 
33.5 
32.6 
35.8 
35.6 
22.6 
36.0 
34.0 

33.46 


Negro. 

757,308 
1,002,(132 
1,377,800 
1,771,050 
2,328,042 
2,873,648 
3,638,803 
4,441,830 
4,880,009 
6,580,000 
8,000,000 

Average 


Inert  -ax- 
iii  i. -n  \  ear 

Per  cent. 

32.32 
37.5 
28.65 
31.44 
23.40 
26.6 
22.1 
9.8 
34.8 
21.5 

26.81 


The  population  of  1700  thus  became,  in  1860, 
eight-fold,  or  31,443,321,  which  is  equivalent  to 
doubling  every  23 ;;  years,  and  the  American  statis- 
tician calculates  in  1900  for  77,100,000,  and  in  19  ">0 
for  103,314,000. 

lie  predicts  in  1990 — "all  things  being  well  " — 
an  American  people  numbering  1,206,400,0(X),  with 
86,9.57,000  coloured  persons,  and  proceeds  to  say — 
"Those  who  believe  in  the  prospects  here  set  forth 
will  rule  their  undertakings  and  investments  in 
the  expectation  that  property  in  real  estate  must 
advance  in  the  next  half  century  ;  that  commerce 
and  transportation  and  production  must  increase 
enormously.  As  the  discoveries  and  inventions  of 
science  and  industry  make  towns  more  and  more 
healthful,  convenient,  interesting,  and  agreeable 
places  of  residence,  our  people,  will  tend  more 
and  more  toward  them.  Museums,  libraries,  public 
halls  for  the  education  and   instruction  and  amuse- 


i4o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

ment  of  the  people,  will  be  more  and  more 
numerous  and  cheap.  The  streets  and  parks  will 
be  embellished  and  made  gay  with  public  and 
private  buildings.  Electric  engines  will  do  the 
heavy  work  of  the  day.  More  time  will  be  at  the 
disposal  of  men  for  enjoyment,  as  these  improve- 
ments relieve  men  and  women  from  slavish  toil 
for  the  means  of  living.  ...  In  1990  the  urban 
population  will  be  240,000,000,  and  of  these 
New  York  will  probably  contain  over  30,000,000. 
What  work  for  architects,  contractors,  builders,  car- 
penters, masons,  bricklayers,  plasterers,  brickmakers, 
quarriers,  saw-mills,  lime-kilns,  sand-gatherers,  roll- 
ing-mills, structural  and  roofing  iron  in  sheets  and 
beams,  for  tinners  and  roofers,  -and  the  thousand 
other  trades  engaged  in  construction,  not  only  of 
the  14,000,000  new  homes,  but  of  the  markets, 
stores,  warehouses,  post-offices,  court-houses,  city- 
halls,  gaols,  penitentiaries,  &c,  necessary  in  the 
administration  of  an  additional  population  equal  to 
all  that  exists  now  on  the  Northern  Continent !" 

This  is  "  spread-eagleism "  with  a  vengeance ! 
But  if  you  only  saw  what  millions  of  sunny  acres 
lie  facing  this  Pacific  sea-verge,  how  genial  the 
climate  is  and  how  rich  the  soil,  you  would  not 
wonder  at  the  elated  tone  of  Californians,  nor  doubt 
that  a  future  of  splendid  prosperity  must  await  the 
Union  from  the  Western  to  the  Eastern  Ocean. 

To-morrow  we  take  ship  for  Japan,  embarking  on  . 
the  Belgic,  a  fine  steamer  of  5000  tons  burden,  for 
Yokohoma,  a  voyage1  of  about    twenty  days.      We 
shall  have  a  crew  of  Chinese  sailors,  and    take  no 


SAN  FRANCISCO.  141 

less  than  860  Chinese  passengers  in  the  steerage 
who  are  returning,  with  hoarded  dollars,  to  the 
Flowery .  Land.  It  is  but  too  certain  that  of  this 
number  a  proportion  will  die  upon  the  passage, 
and  others  will  go  crazy  from  the  effects  of  too 
much  opium  and  samshoo,  nor  can  it  be  pretended 
that  they  are,  personally,  the  most  agreeable  of 
fellow-passengers.  But  when  properly  treated 
Chinamen  behave  well  enough,  and  our  captain, 
an  Englishman,  has  had  experience  in  their 
management.  We  have  also  on  board  some  man- 
darins,  the  suite  of  the  unsuccessful  Embassy  to 
Washington,  and  it  is  darkly  whispered  that  one 
or  two  of  these  are  already  in  peril  of  decapita- 
tion at  Pekin.  They  are  courtly  and  agreeable 
gentlemen,  however,  and  we  must  try  in  such  sad 
case,  to  render  their  closing  days  pleasant.  It  is 
not  everybody  who  could  be  perfectly  polite  and 
chatty,  as  these  almond-eyed  diplomatists  are,  with 
"  something  humorous  but  lingering "  impending 
over  their  red-buttoned  caps  all  the  way  across  the 
rolling  Pacific  ! 

San  Francisco,  Oct.  16,  1889. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE    PACIFIC. 

We  are  two  thousand  miles  from  "anywhere," 
steaming  swiftly  over  a  lifeless  expanse  of  dark  blue 
waters,  under  a  cloudless  vault  of  palest  blue  sky. 
The  nearest  land  is  the  Sandwich  Island  group, 
far  away  in  the  south,  whence  come  softly  sighing 
wafts  of  balmy  breeze,  which  fill  the  wanderer  with 
longings  to  put  the  head  of  the  Belgic  straight  on 
for  Honolulu,  and  to  linger  a  season  or  two  in  the 
delightful  archipelagoes  of  Polynesia.  But  we  are 
bound  right  across  the  prodigious  ocean  for  Yoko- 
hama, and  the  cities  and  temples  of  Japan  ;  on, 
perhaps,  the  longest  voyage  without  stay  or  sight  of 
land  which  passenger  steamers  take  in  any  part  of 
the  globe.  As  it  is  the  longest,  so  it  is  also  the 
loneliest.  The  vessels  which  sail  these  seas  for  the 
lumber  and  grain  of  British  Columbia,  or  the  seals 
and  walruses  of  Alaska,  are  scattered  all  far  away  to 
the  northward  along  the  thickening  ice  of  Behring's 
Straits,  and  athwart  the  stormy  arch  of  the  Aleutian 
Islands.  The  San  Francisco  whalers,  which  cruise 
for  the  sperm  oil  yielded  by  the  "right  whale,"  are 
all  far  away  to  the  southward  among  the  atolls  and 
coral  reefs.     We  have  not  sighted  a  sail — unless  it 


THE   PACIFIC.  14; 

be  that  of  the  nautilus — or  craft  of  any  kind,  through 
all  these  5000  or  6000  miles  of  solitary  salt  waste, 
and  shall  not  sight  one  until  Satsunia  Light 
twinkles  from  the  hills  of  Japan,  and  the  Gulf  of 
Yokohama  opens,  with  many  a  fishing  boat  and 
skimming  sampan. 

What  an  immense  isolation  it  is!  We  are  for 
many  a  day  as  much  cut  off  from  the  living  world 
in  this  our  floating  island  as  if  we  were  an  aste- 
roid gliding  through  the  blue  of  interstellar  space. 
The  limitless,  weltering,  desolate,  beautiful  wilder- 
ness of  rolling  water  affords  no  token,  except 
our  own  passing  shadow  and  the  beat  of  our  tire- 
less crew,  that  man  is  so  much  as  existent  upon 
the  planet.  The  sapphire-coloured  wave,  cloven 
into  a  sudden  furrow  by  our  swift  stem,  closes 
up  again  astern  in  a  milky,  broadening  wake, 
which  fades  away  among  the  dancing  crestlets  of  a 
slumbering  sea,  already  forgetting  that  we  have  ever 
passed.  Infinite  silences  of  Nature  are  before  us, 
and  infinite  solitudes  behind,  so  that  there  are  hours 
when  it  feels  almost  too  bold  a  thing  to  launch  forth 
into  such  measureless  deserts  of  blue  water,  even 
with  so  powerful  and  capable  a  ship  as  the  I><  hjic 
What  must  it  have  seemed  like  to  that  grand  old 
navigator,  Captain  James  Cook,  and  his  ships'  com- 
panies, sailing  these  vast  spaces  of  unknown  sea 
in  the  little  bluff-bowed  brigs  Endeavour  and  !!<■<>>- 
lute ;  yet  month  after  month  discovering  fresh  clusters 
of  lovely  islets,  unnamed  archipelagoes,  New  Zea- 
land, Australia — a  whole  strange  world  of  wonderful 
noveltv ;  or  to  Anson  and  his  commodores,  cruising 


i44  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

the  interminable  azure  of  these  expanses  in  search  of 
the  Spanish  galleons,  and  slowly  toiling  home  loaded 
with  the  doubloons  of  his  Catholic  Majesty,  but  with 
crews  decimated  by  scurvy,  and '  weather-beaten  and 
weary  ?  The  romance  of  those  great  days  is  gone,  but 
with  it  also  the  hardships.  We  glide  along  over  the 
pathless  Pacific  in  a  floating  caravanserai  carrying 
nearly  1000  souls,  but  in  the  utmost  comfort,  safety 
and  speed,  accomplishing  every  three  days  nearly 
1000  miles  of  pleasant  run,  independent  of  the 
winds  which  baffled  those  bygone  mariners,  so  long  at 
least  as  the  propeller  beats  its  ceaseless  stroke  upon 
the  whitened  waves  under  our  stern-post. 

Yet  it  has  only  been  during  the  last  few  days  that 
the  Pacific  Ocean  has  justified  its  appellation.  Our 
first  week  upon  its  bosom  was  one  of  wild  and  rest- 
less tossing  and  rolling — for  we  left  the  Golden  Gate 
in  squalls  of  wind  and  rain,  which  continued  long 
after  it  might  have  been  expected  that  the  influence 
of  the  Alaska  storm-regions  would  have  ceased. 
The  Belgic  is  a  very  fine  vessel  of  the  White  Star 
Line,  registering  5000  tons,  and  constructed  of  steel, 
by  those  excellent  builders,  Messrs.  Harland  and 
Wolff,  of  Belfast,  to  whose  unfailingly  faithful  work 
the  voyager  may  always  confidently  trust  himself. 
Long,  and  relatively  somewhat  narrow,  she  has  a 
certain  inclination  to  roll,  sometimes  even  to  a 
moderate  beam  sea,  but  has  shown  herself  an  ad- 
mirable sea-boat,  and  keeps  up  an  average  rate  of 
twelve  knots  without  canvas.  At  San  Francisco, 
besides  ninety  saloon  passengers,  we  shipped  870 
home-going    Chinese,  berthed   aft,  on    three    decks, 


THE  PACIFIC.  145 

and  packed  one  above  the  other  in  dense  strata  of 
Mongolian  humanity.  Our  commander,  Captain 
Walker,  is  an  Englishman,  and  a  navigator  of 
great  experience  ;  .the  officers  are  also  English,  but 
the  crew  to  a  man  are  Chinese,  as  also  the  stewards, 
and  all  the  service  of  the  ship.  I  am  surprised  to 
observe  what  capital  seamen  these  Celestials  make 
under  good  and  just  management.  Captain  Walker 
has  had  his  company  of  pig-tailed  sailors  with  him 
in  this  same  vessel  for  four  years,  and  they  know 
their  duty  and  perform  it,  in  fair  weather  or  foul, 
with  an  alacrity  and  skill  not  easily  to  be  surpassed. 
The  almond-eyed  stewards  are  equally  laudable. 
Always  cheerful,  willing,  and  industrious,  they  get 
through  their  never-ending  task  of  feeding  and 
serving  us  with  an  unchanging  complacency  which 
is  quite  delightful ;  and  my  particular  attendant, 
Ah-Fat,  affords  me  special  and  endless  amusement 
with  his  views  of  land  and  sea  life  expressed  in 
"  pidgeon  "  English.  "  No  makee  raining,  sun  sine, 
plenty  muchee  good  walkee  topside  ship,"  is  his 
method  of  announcing  fine  weather  at  dawn,  and 
recommending  exercise  upon  deck.  Preparing  to 
extinguish  the  electric  lamp,  he  briefly  suggests, 
"No  wantchee  see  now;"  and  when  I  inquire  why 
his  countrymen  so  often  come  on  board  sick,  and 
even  at  point  of  death,  Ah-Fat  murmurs  the  ex- 
planation, "  Plenty  you,  perhaps,  savee,  but  no  savee 
bottom-side  Chinaman  mind.  My  very  sick,  more 
better  kill  board  ship  than  kill  San  Francisco.  Sup- 
pose my  killed  board  ship,  my  put  one  piecey  bokkus, 
all  nice ;  go  China  cheap."     And  such   is  the  ease. 


146  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

A  consuming  desire  possesses  the  Celestial  exile  to 
have  his  bones  laid  in  native  earth,  a  desire  rein- 
forced by  religious  doctrines  and  sanction.  In  every 
contract  for  foreign  service  it  is  stipulated  by  the 
Chinaman  that  the  remains  of  the  contracting  party 
shall  be  conveyed — if  he  dies — to  a  Chinese  grave. 
Those  who  depart  life  in  California  are  temporarily 
interred  by  their  friends,  but  only  to  be  exhumed 
after  a  certain  period  and  then  packed  up  for  expor- 
tation. The  Pacific  steamers  are  quite  accustomed 
to  accept  and  transmit  these  rather  uncomfortable 
freights  at  of  course  a  considerable  charge,  but 
generally  ship  them  under  the  entry  of  "  fish-bones." 
If  the  slant-eyed  passengers  are  not  closely  looked 
after  at  embarkation,  they  will  often  bring  all  that  is 
conveniently  portable  of  a  deceased  friend  or  kins- 
man on  board  the  ship  in  a  portmanteau  or  tea-chest, 
"  doing  "  not  only  the  company,  which  is  always  a 
joy  to  the  Celestial  heart,  but  also  their  social  duty, 
according  to  the  maxims  of  Confucius. 

The  boisterous  week  with  which  our  long  voyage 
opened  worked,  naturally,  some  woe  aft  among  the 
870  Chinamen.  It  was  bad  enough,  midships,  in 
the  comfortable  quarters  of  the  saloon  passengers, 
to  have  the  great  ship  wallowing  day  by  day,  and 
night  after  night,  in  the  gusty  trough  of.  the  ocean, 
rolling  her  boats  into  the  water,  and  taking  the 
spray,  and  even  the  blue  seas,  on  board,  with  heavy 
swashes,  that  shake  the  deck,  and  blinding  blows 
dealt  at  the  sturdy  bows  of  the  Belgic,  making  her 
long  elastic  fabric  of  thin  but  strong  steel  plating 
quiver  like  the  skin  of  a  wounded  sea-serpent.     It 


THE   PACIFIC.  147 

is  bad  enough  when  von  endeavour  to  dress  for 
breakfast,  to  be  hustled  suddenly  into  your  port- 
manteau ;  and  to  have  your  brushes  cast  into  the 
hand-basin,  and  your  boots  into  the  slop-tub  ;  to 
see  the  soup-plate  sliding  into  your  lap,  despite  the 
"  fiddles,"  at  dinner-time,  and  to  be  reduced  at  last 
to  the  mental  and  physical  condition  of  a  human  pen- 
dulum. Even  if  not  a  victim  of  sea-sickness,  this 
state-  of  things  becomes  odious  and  humiliating  for 
the  stoutest  traveller  when  it  continues  throughout 
six  or  seven  whole  days,  as  was  our  fate;  while  for 
delicate  women  and  children,  and  those  who  suffer 
badly  from  rough  weather,  it  is  about  as  miserable 
an  experience,  even  in  the  best  arranged  and  most 
commodious  vessel,  as  travelling  can  well  otter.  But 
even  to  think  of  the  condition  of  our  Celestial  fellow- 
passengers  during  those  long  hours,  when  we  were 
all—   ' 

"  Rolled  to  larboard,  rolled  to  starboard,  in  the  seething  of  the  sea/' 

was  to  be  thankfully  reconciled  to  our  own  lot. 
The  Belgic  is  so  admirably  managed,  and  the  "ways 
of  the  heathen  Chinee"  are  so  perfectly  understood 
and  met  on  board  such  a  ship,  that  there  was 
nothing  at  all  absolutely  unsanitary  in  that  awful 
after-hold;  but  the  discomfort — even  for  people 
accustomed  to  reside  in  the  cellars  of  China  Town 
— must  have  been  sometimes  perfectly  grim  and 
Dantesque.  The  odours  which  ascended  from  the 
hatches,  roofed  over  from  rain  and  spray  by  tar- 
paulins, of  themselves  altogether  forbade  any  per- 
sonal exploration;    but    if    imagination    will    picture 


i48  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

800  Chinamen  packed  three  deep  in  bunks,  and 
then  conceive  a  series  of  close  wet  nights,  and 
spray-driving  days,  with  the  huge  vessel  bounding 
like  a  porpoise,  and  shaking  together  into  chaotic 
helplessness  that  crowd  of  pig-tailed  people,  it  may 
partly  realise  the  hidden  picture. 

In  the  course  of  those  first  five  or  six  nights 
two  of  the  poor  yellow-skinned  folk  gave  up  the 
business  and  the  ghost  together.  They  had  come 
on  board  moribund,  in  the  last  stage  of  bodily 
weakness,  and  one  of  them  was  discovered  dead  in 
his  bunk  at  early  morning,  while  the  demise  of 
the  other  was  generally  announced  to  the  ship 
one  night  by  the  howling  of  his  immediate  neigh- 
bours. Even  Chinese  do  not  like  to  have  a  corpse 
rolling  against  them  with  every  lurch  and  pitch. 
The  system  pursued  in  all  these  cases  is  uniform. 
The  company,  having  contracted  to  convey  the 
body,  alive  or  dead,  provided  the  necessary  fee 
be  forthcoming,  carries  a  quantity  of  ready-made 
coffins.  One  of  these  is  handed  up  from  below, 
and  then  the  steward  of  the  Chinese  section  de- 
mands the  regulation  thirty  dollars  for  embalm- 
ing. It  is  seldom  these  are  forthcoming  from  the 
dead  man's  own  pockets,  or  stockings,  or  girdle, 
for  though  his  comrades  would  not  steal  from  an 
actually  defunct  person,  some  of  them  have  few 
scruples  about  annexing  the  cash  of  a  departing 
brother.  Yet  the  bulk  of  them  are  fairly  generous ; 
and,  a  tin  dish  being  filled  with  burnt  sugar,  into 
which  lighted  joss-sticks  are  fixed,  somebody  goes 
round  with  it,  inviting  contributions.     Every  well- 


THE   PACIFIC.  149 

disposed  Chinaman  takes  a  pinch  of  the  burnt  sugar 
and  drops  into  the  dish  a  dime,  a  quarter,  or  a  half- 
dollar,  until  the  requisite  sum  is  raised.  Then  the 
steward,  or  his  assistant,,  opens  the  femoral  artery 
of  the  deeeased,  and  injects  into  the  veins  a  strong- 
preservative  solution  of  carbolic  acid,  arsenic,  and 
other  chemicals.  The  corpse,  thus  pickled,  is  rolled 
in  canvas,  placed  in  one  of  the  rough  coffins,  corded 
up,  and  lashed  to  the  rail  of  the  ship,  with  a  paper 
tacked  upon  it,  recording,  in  Chinese  characters, 
the  name  and  address  of  the  hapless  emigrant,  who, 
in  place  of  a  passenger,  has  become  part  of  the 
cargo.  I  have  just  inspected  two  of  these  sad 
packages,  securely  fastened  abaft.  Their  whilom 
companions  were  sitting  nonchalantly  on  the  top 
of  them,  smoking  little  bamboo  pipes,  and  playing 
dominoes.  We  expect,  alas  !  to  have  more  demises 
;is  the  voyage  goes  on,  for  several  of  the  homeward- 
bound  Celestials  are  very  ill,  albeit,  fortunately,  there 
is  no  epidemic  or  any  general  ill-health  among  their 
numbers. 

Our  judicious  captain,  wisely  perceiving  that  the 
northern  or  the  central  course  across  the  Pacific 
would  only  entail  head  winds,  strong  seas,  and  slow 
daily  runs,  resolved  to  steer  southwards  to  the  olst 
parallel  and  "  pick  up  fair  weather."  This,  there- 
fore, was  ordered,  and  the  Bclgic,  heading  steadily 
on  a  south-westerly  course,  brought  us  on  the 
seventh  day  of  the  voyage  into  a  zone  of  far  more 
pleasant  seas  and  skies.  Gloriously,  indeed,  for 
the  three  succeeding  days  was  the  Pacific  engaged 
in    rejustifying   the   appellation    which    had    before 


iSo  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

appeared  so  frightfully  misapplied.  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  blue  weather  above,  and  smooth  water 
below,  those  turbulent  hours  became  forgotten, 
when  night  after  night  the  saloon  passengers  of 
the  Belgic  rolled  from  one  side  to  the  other  of  their 
narrow  berths,  or  by  day  sate  in  melancholy  rows 
along  the  deck-houses,  with  a  life-line  festooned 
round  every  neck  or  waist  to  keep  chair  and  indi- 
vidual from  sliding  at  each  oscillation  of  the  sea 
into  the  lee-scuppers.  Dawns  of  delicious  beauty 
were  followed  by  noons  of  splendour,  and  by  sun- 
sets of  wonderful  glory  of  colour  and  cloud-shapes 
as  we  ran  along  the  soft  parallel  of  31.50,  and  so 
touched  the  upper  edge  of  the  golden  Otaheitan 
zone.  Far  to  the  north,  the  heavens  were  still 
gloomy,  no  doubt,  and  the  ocean  restless ;  but  we 
had  evaded  the  worst  of  those  evil  influences  by 
our  southernly  demarche,  and  the  happy  difference 
was  quickly  visible  from  end  to  end  of  the  good 
ship  Belgic.  The  feeblest  "  sea-legs "  on  board 
became  firm,  chair-lashings  were  discarded,  and 
games  of  deck-cricket,  of  shovel-board,  quoits,  and 
ring-the-pin  were  merrily  pursued,  while  daring 
projects  circulated  among  the  younger  ladies  and 
gentlemen  of  dances  under  the  new  moon.  Our 
pig-tailed  passengers  in  the  after-part  of  the  vessel 
attributed  the  welcome  change  to  the  copious 
amount  of  joss-papers  which  they  had  flung  over- 
board to  propitiate  the  Goddess  of  Storms.  When- 
ever the  wind  blows  very  hard  the  Mongolian 
voyagers  believe  that  this  deity  is  demanding 
another  victim   from   their    number,  and    they    are 


THE   PACIFIC.  151 

wont  to  appease  her  wrath  by  casting  forth  in- 
numerable square  pieces  of  gold  and  silver  tissue 
paper,  inscribed  with  prayers.  Whether  the  god- 
dess accepted  these,  or  whether  we  had  run  clear 
of  the  storm-zone,  certainly  for  three  whole  days 
the  Belgic  bore  us  gaily  and  swiftly  under  skies 
realising  Lord  Tennyson's  idea  of  what  the  Pacific 
should  look  like — 

"  A  blaze  upon  the  waters  to  the  East ; 
A  blaze  upon  the  waters  overhead  ; 
A  blaze  upon  the  waters  to  the  West." 

Comforted  by  such  bright  weather,  the  pig-tailed 
people  came  out  into  the  sun  from  their  dark  and 
crowded  bunks,  and  gave  themselves  to  the  delights 
of  unlimited  domino-playing,  with  shirt-buttons  for 
counters,  which  they  treasured  in  their  shoes.  The 
liveliest  games  were  played  in  and  about  the  "grave- 
yard," where  the  two  defunct  Chinamen  reposed, 
duly  corded,  lashed  and  ticketed.  Hut  there  were 
only  two  dead  out  of  nearly  900,  and  almost  all  the 
others  were  well,  and  cheerful  at  the  rapid  and  even 
progress  of  the  vessel.  AVe  logged  a  steadv  average 
of  300  miles  a  day,  which,  if  not  equal  to  Atlantic 
runs,  would  still  bring  us  to  Yokohama  in  twenty 
days,  or  thereabouts.  This  morning  Ah-Fat  has 
more  lucidly  explained  to  me  why  his  countrymen 
are  so  desirous  to  have  their  remains  conveyed  to 
China,  if  they  cannot  reach  it  alive.  "  That  number 
one  piecey  Cod-pidgin!"  lie  softly  pointed  out: 
"suppose  wantehee  go  topside,  after  kill,  then 
wantchee    family    make    chin-chin   joss    at     grave 


152  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Suppose  no  takee  bones,  no  makee  grave,  no  speakee 
chin-chin  joss,  then  not  belong  topside  at  all  after 
kill  ;  belong  Hellee."  In  other  words,  an  immense 
value  is  attached  by  the  Chinese  to  the  prayers  and 
offices  of  children  for  parents,  and  of  kinsmen  and 
posterity  for  their  ancestors,  and  such  prayers  must 
be  uttered  in  presence  of  the  dead  man's  relics,  or 
at  the  spot  where  they  rest.  Hence  the  extreme 
anxiety  of  the  Celestial  to  lay  his  mortal  part  in 
the  family  soil ;  nor  is  there  anything  which  more 
potently  tends  to  hold  China  together  in  her  intense 
and  exclusive  nationality. 

Then  we  had  bad  weather  again,  which  the  joss- 
papers  did  not  appear  to  diminish,  with  a  tremen- 
dous beam  sea  from  the  north-east,  upon  which  the 
Belglc,  largely  lightened  of  coal  by  her  passage  of 
twelve  or  thirteen  days,  rolled  recklessly  and  con- 
stantly. One  lurch  shipped  a  green  sea  into  the 
galley  and  spoiled  an  entire  dinner  for  the  saloon. 
Another  sent  all  the  children — of  which  we  carried 
a  large  and  lively  consignment — in  one  indis- 
tinguishable heap  under  the  table  of  the  "  Social 
Hall,"  mingled  inextricably,  for  some  minutes,  with 
playthings,  toy-books,  mothers,  nurses,  candy,  and 
cushions.  A  third  lurch  at  night  unshipped  the 
coffins  wherein  the  dead  Chinamen  were  making 
silent  passage,  and  for  a  time  flung  these  grim 
packages  hither  and  thither  about  the  flooded  deck, 
one  of  them  bursting  open,  so  that  the  affrighted 
sailors  had  to  chase  and  dodge  the  errant  corpse 
up  and  down  tin1  lee-scuppers,  and  before  it  was 
repacked  and    re-lashed    nearly    lost  it   overboard. 


THE   PACIFIC.  153 

At  table  the  plates  and  dishes  overleap  the  fences 
of  the  "  fiddle,"  soup  Hies  about  like  spray,  and 
avalanches  of  breaking  crockery  add  to  the  uproar  of 
the  hissing  waves  and  whistling  wind.  In  the  state- 
room the  articles  you  thought  were  safely  fastened 
break  adrift  and  cruise  round  and  round  the  floor 
all  night,  preparing  for  you  in  the  morning  a 
chaos  of  fruit,  cigars,  clean  collars,  and  books,  all 
mashed  and  jammed  by  the  heavy  portmanteaus 
which  have  sailed  backwards  and  forwards  through 
the  dark  hours.  It  is  not  a  pleasant  time ;  but, 
through  it  all,  the  good  ship  plunges  bravely 
forward ;  the  imperturbable,  kindly,  skilful  captain 
never  loses  his  quiet  self-composure  for  an  instant ; 
the  purser  is  genial,  gay,  resourceful,  indomitably 
attentive  to  his  vast  family  ;  and  the  Chinese  crew 
do  all  their  hard,  wet  work  with  ready  alacrity,  so 
that  in  the  very  worst  of  it  you  always  hear  ringing 
their  not  unmelodious  sea-cry,  "  Ya-hoya-hoya-ho !" 
and  know  that  it  will  all  come  right  and  end  in 
pleasant  times  again. 

And  so  it  does  !  Once  more  the  Pacific  slumbers, 
and  once  more  the  delicious  days  return  when  the 
merry  group  of  fellow-travellers  and  officers,  dis- 
cussing caviare  sandwiches  and  dry  champagne  in 
the  purser's  cabin,  or  partaking  tea  and  matchless 
Manilla  cigars  in  the  captain's  own  sanctum,  might 
be  yachting  on  the  Solent  for  any  sign  that  exists 
of  a  boundless  ocean  outside,  or  elemental  perils  in 
presence  of  whose  anger  the  stout  and  strong  Belgic 
herself  would  be  as  a  cockle-shell.  Day  after 
day  the  hours  of  gold    and    sapphire  succeed  each 


i54  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

other,  heralded  by  a  rosy  dawn,  and  closed  in  by  a 
sunset  of  purple  and  amber.  If  the  great  vessel 
still  moves  to  the  sea,  it  is  with  a  grave  and 
rhythmical  measure,  to  which  everybody  has  grown 
accustomed  ;  but,  indeed,  there  are  now  long  intervals 
when  she  hardly  curtseys  at  all  in  response  to  the 
gentle  swell  lifting  the  shining  faces  of  the  long 
sea-ridges.  Everybody  is  grateful  to  Captain  Walker 
for  bringing  his  ship  into  these  southern  latitudes, 
even  if  it  prolongs  the  vogage  a  little ;  and,  in 
simple  truth,  it  is  not  possible  to  praise  too  warmly 
the  management  of  the  Belgic.  The  steamer  is 
good  and  strong  enough  for  any  service,  and  is  kept 
as  neat  and  sweet  as  a  first-class  yacht.  Her  com- 
mander, without  descending  to  become  what  is  called 
a  "  saloon-captain,"  is  as  kindly  and  considerate  as 
he  is  firm  and  vigilant.  The  directors  have  had  the 
wisdom  to  give  us  for  purser — the  most  important 
officer  in  a  passenger  ship  after  the  commander — a 
courteous  gentleman  whose  heart  is  in  the  work  of 
making  everybody  comfortable,  and  who  understands 
and  enjoys  that  work.  Our  voyage  is  a  notable  one 
in  many  points.  Never  has  a  Pacific  steamer  carried 
so  full  a  list  of  saloon  passengers,  and  but  for 
signally  admirable  management  we  should  be  much 
inconvenienced.  Mr.  Magee,  however,  has  skilfully 
organised  double  tables  for  breakfast  and  dinner, 
and  his  Chinese  stewards  do  their  increased  duties 
with  an  alacrity  so  unfailing  that  even  habitual 
grumblers  are  silenced.  I  believe  this  line  is 
destined  to  become  very  popular,  when  the  example 
of  our  present  voyage  is  followed  by  the  "  Occidental 


THE   PACJEIC.  155 

and  Oriental  Steamship  Company,"  which  is  a  branch 
of  the  Great  Southern  Pacific  Railway  Company, 
under  the  general  management  of  a  gentleman  well 
known,  Mr.  F.  Crocker.  It  will  be  wise  policy  of  the 
Government  to  adopt  this  southern  road  definitely — 
to  touch  regularly  at  Honolulu,  going  and  coming, 
thus  picking  up  Australian  and  Polynesian  pas- 
sengers and  goods,  and  furnishing  a  regular  and 
pleasant  route  across  the  vast  Pacific.  I  find  it 
altogether  impossible  to  acknowledge  too  warmly 
the  excellence  of  the  service,  the  carefulness  and 
liberality  of  the  control,  or  the  constant  efforts  on 
the  part  of  our  captain,  our  purser,  and  "all  hands." 
to  render  the  prodigious  journey  pleasant,  safe  and 
harmoniously  social. 

On  the  180th  meridian  we  "hove  a  day  over- 
board." Monday,  October  28,  was  for  ns  a  dies  non, 
erased  wholly  from  our  calendar  in  order  to  square 
the  ship's  time  with  that  of  the  sun,  whose  course 
we  had  been  diurnally  overrunning.  Thus  we 
skipped  gaily  from  Sunday  to  Tuesday,  and  all  of 
lis  may  boast  that  there  has  been  one  day  at  least 
in  our  lives  upon  which  we  neither  said  nor  did  a 
word  or  act  to  be  regretted.  Of  si  sic  omnes ! 
Animated  by  the  fine  weather,  some  of  our  ladies, 
on  one  of  the  lovely  moonlight  nights  of  latitude 
31.0,  dazzled  us  by  appearing  at  dinner  in  fancy 
dress.  One  wore  a  bewitching  Japanese  costume  of 
gauzy  silk;  another  the  mantilla  and  skirt  of  a 
Spanish  senora ;  a  third  had  donned  the  robes  of 
a  lady  of  the  Court  of  Louis  XIV.:  yet  another  was 
powdered   and    patched  a    la   Queen    Anne;    and   a 


i56  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Chicago  dame,  comely,  bright,  and  lively — as  the 
important  character  demanded — had  formed  a  charm- 
ing garb  out  of  the  ship's  biggest "  stars  and  stripes," 
and,  with  the  help  of  a  diadem  of  pasteboard, 
adorned  with  stars  cut  from  tin-foil,  and  bearing  the 
word  "  Liberty  "  emblazoned  in  the  same  material 
across  her  bosom,  played  majestically  the  part  of 
"Columbia."  Afterwards  we  had  dancing  to  a  late 
hour  on  deck,  with  singing,  and  all  sorts  of  maritime 
"  high  jinks ;"  that  wonderful  engine  amidships 
beating  its  ceaseless  measure  day  and  night,  fair 
and  foul,  whether  we  slept  or  awoke,  dined,  danced 
or  flirted.  Once  only,  in  the  entire  traject,  the 
machinery  suddenly  stopped ;  and  the  effect  was  as 
though  an  event  had  happened  to  the  Universe, 
so  much  had  that  never-pausing  pulse  of  the  ship 
become  part  of  our  bodily  sensations.  There  was 
something  out  of  order  with  the  steam-chest,  and  it 
was  "  pretty  to  see  " — as  Mr.  Pepys  would  have  put 
it — how  smartly  the  chief  engineer  and  his  staff 
whipped  off  the  cover  of  the  chest,  wheeled  the 
crane  over  it,  slung  the  great  metallic  mass  into  the 
air,  and  put  matters  right — so  that  within  two  hours 
efficiency  was  restored,  and  the  systole  and  diastole 
of  the  Belf/ic's  iron  heart  once  again  beat  regularly. 
For  the  use  of  future  Pacific  travellers — to  all  whom 
I  wish  as  prosperous  a  voyage,  as  good  a  vessel,  and, 
;is  agreeable  a  company  of  officers — the  log  is  here 
appended  : — 


THE  PA  CIFIC. 


*57 


VOYAGE  NINETEENTH  OF  S.S.  BELGIC. 
San  Francisco  to  Yokohama. 

Left  Dock  Oct.  17. 


Oct. 

Wind. 

Force. 

3 

Sea. 

Lat. 

37.45 

Long.  W. 

127.20 

Hun. 

230 

18 

Variable. 

Confused. 

19 

Variable. 

5 

Heavy. 

37.50 

133.22 

286 

20 

Westerly. 

7 

Heavv. 

37.31 

138.33 

248 

21 

W.N.W. 

7  to  3 

High  swell. 

35.52 

142.52 

250 

22 

Westerly. 

7 

Heavy. 

33.52 

147.56 

277 

23 

N.N.W. 

5 

Strong. 

32.25 

153.42 

302 

24 

N. 

3 

Moderate. 

31.43 

159.43 

30!) 

25 

Variable. 

2 

Smooth. 

31.27 

165.36 

302 

26 

S.S.W. 

3 

Smooth. 

31.14 

171.34 

306 

27 

w. 

4 

Smooth. 

[Day  dropped.] 

31.14 

177.22 

Long.  K. 

298 

29 

Variable. 

5 

Confused. 

31.14 

176.32 

304 

30 

E.N.E. 

7 

Heavy. 

31.14 

170.44 

297 

31 

Variable. 

4 

Smooth. 

31.27 

164.41 

310 

Nov. 
1 

Westerly. 

2 

Smooth. 

32.0 

159.17 

277 

2 

Westerly. 

3 

Smooth. 

32.49 

153.44 

287 

3 

N.N.W. 

4 

Smooth. 

33.38 

148.0 

2!  12 

4 

N. 

5 

High  sea. 

34.0 

142.40 

310 

Yokohama  Light  distant  142   miles. 

And  now  the  long  voyage  over  this  vast  watery 
wilderness,  which  had  so  many  possible  perils,  is 
happily  terminating  !  We  have  sighted  Cape  King, 
passed  along  the  ten  miles  of  intervening  Japanese 
shore,  and  entered  the  long  inlet,  lined  with  given 
hills  and  little  toy-box  huts,  which  leads  to  Yoko- 
hama. The  waters,  strangely  placid  after  the  stiff 
nor'-wester  blowing  down  upon  us  all  yesterday, 
from  Jesso  and  Saghalien,  are  alive  witli  little 
fishing  craft  and  vessels  of  all  nations.  If  is  Japan  ! 
the  Land  of  Gentle  Manners  and  Fantastic  Arts. 
We  are  going  ashore  ! 


Gulf  of  Yokohama,  Nov.  5,  1889. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

JAPAN. 

Arriving  at  night  in  a  strange  country,  one  always 
wonders  what  the  daytime  will  disclose.  It  dawned 
on  a  scene  of  singular  charm  and  beauty.  Far  and 
near,  over  the  placid  surface  of  "  Mississippi  Bay,"  as 
the  inlet  is  called  upon  which  Yokohoma  stands, 
rode  at  anchor  a  whole  fleet  of  merchant  ships  of 
large  tonnage,  steam  and  sailing,  seven  or  eight 
powerful  men-of-war  of  various  nationalities  inter- 
spersed among  them,  her  Majesty's  vessels  Severn 
and  Wanderer  being  of  the  number.  Amidst,  and 
around,  and  beyond  these,  scores  of  native  fishing 
craft,  with  square  sails  of  many  hues,  traversed  the 
bay,  while  hundreds  of  "  sampans  " — light  rowing 
boats,  constructed  of  broad  planks  of  pine — skimmed 
the  quiet  sea,  propelled  after  the  manner  of  Venetian 
gondolas,  by  two  long  stern  oars,  which  are  worked 
under  water  with  a  sculling  movement  by  the  lively 
little  brown-skinned  watermen.  The  white  hulls 
of  the  men-of-war,  the  black  mail  steamers,  the 
brown  and. yellow  native  craft  with  variously  tinted 
sails,  the  fluttering  ensigns  of  many  nations — ami*' 
which  the  Japanese  flag  of  red  and  white  was  every- 
where conspicuous — filled   the   fair   marine   picture 

158 


JAPAN.  i59 

with  bright  points  of  colour,  and  beyond  the 
thickly-peopled  water  lay  the  picturesque  town, 
planted  on  what  was  once  a  marsh,  between  two 
"bluffs,"  or  ranges  of  hills,  running  inland.  Here 
was  Japan  at  last,  the  country  which  surprises  and 
fascinates  everybody  who  visits  it — the  "  Kingdome 
of  Japonia,"  as  the  old  authors  styled  it — and  of 
which  good  Master  Will  Adams,  its  discoverer  for 
English  people,  wrote — "  This  iland  of  Iapon  is  a 
great  land,  and  lyeth  to  the  northwards,  in  the 
lattitude  of  eight  and  fortie  degrees,  and  it  lyeth 
east  by  north,  and  west  by -south  or  west  south  west, 
two  hundred  and  twentie  English  leagues.  The 
people  of  this  iland  of  Iapon  are  good  of  nature, 
eurteous  aboue  measure,  and  valiant  in  warre ;  their 
iustice  is  seuerely  executed  without  any  partialitie 
vpon  trangressors  of  the  law.  They  are  goner ned 
in  great  ciuilitie.  I  meane,  not  a  land  better 
gouerned  in  the  world  by  ciuil  policie.  The 
people  be  verie  superstitious  in  their  religion,  and 
are  of  diuers  opinions."  We  could  hardly  have 
patience  enough  for  breakfast  on  board  the  Bc/f/ir, 
so  much  did  the  shore  and  the  prospect  of  setting 
foot  in  the  spacious  city  before  our  eyes  excite  the 
imagination.  But  the  Japanese  authorities  are 
particular  and  punctilious.  It  was  necessary  to 
get  a  clean  bill  of  health,  and  to  fulfil  all  for- 
malities, after  which  a  steam-launch  conveyed  us, 
"bag  and  baggage,"  to  the  steps  of  the  Custom 
House,  which  we  passed  with  little  or  no  trouble, 
and  found  ourselves — with  gait  unsteadied  by  the 
ceaseless     movements    of    the     Paeifie     waves — safe. 


i6o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

sound,  and  well  pleased  on  the  soil  of  the  "  Land 
of  Gentle  Manners." 

Everybody  has  read  and  heard  so  much  of  Japan, 
by  this  time,  and  seen  so  many  photographs  of  its 
people  and  places,  that  it  cannot  seem  quite  so 
novel,  so  astonishing  to  the  modern  traveller,  as  it 
was  to  Will  Adams  and  his  weather-beaten  crew, 
when  they  came  to  "  Nangasaque "  and  saw  those 
scenes  which  the  old  seaman  describes  so  well — 
"  Then  wee  steered  north  north-west,  and  soone 
after  came  foure  great  fisher-boats  aboord,  about 
fine  tunnes  apeece  in  burthen,  they  sailed  with  one 
saile,  which  stood  like  a  skiffe  saile,  and  skuld  with 
foure  oares  on  a  side,  their  oares  resting  vpon  a 
pinne  fastned  on  the  toj^pe  of  the  boats  side,  the 
head  of  which  pinne  was  so  let  into  the  middle  part 
of  the  oare  that  the  oare  did  hang  in  his  iust  poize, 
so  that  the  labour  of  the  rower  is  much  lesse,  then 
otherwise  it  must  be ;  yet  doe  they  make  farre 
greater  speed  then  our  people  with  rowing,  and 
performe  their  worke  standing  as  ours  doe  sitting, 
so  that  they  take  the  lesse  roome."  And  again — 
"  The  king  came  aboord  and  brought  foure  chiefe 
women  with  him.  They  were  attired  in  gownes  of 
silke,  clapt  the  one  skirt  ouer  the  other,  and  so  girt 
to  them,  barelegged,  only  a  paire  of  halfe  buskins 
bound  with  silke  reband  about  their  instep ;  their 
haire  very  blacke,  and  very  long,  tyed  vp  in  a  knot 
vpon  the  crowne  in  a  comely  manner  :  their  heads 
no  where  shauen  as  the  mens  were.  They  were 
well  faced,  handed,  and  footed ;  cleare  skind  and 
white,  but  wanting   colour,  which   they   amend  by 


JAPAN.  161 

arte.  Of  stature  low,  but  very  fat  ;  very  curt  eons 
in  behauiour,  not  ignorant  of  the  respect  to  be  given 
unto  persons  according  to  their  fashion.  The  kings 
women  seemed  to  be  somewhat  bashful,  but  he 
willed  them  to  bee  frolicke.  They  sung  diners 
songs,  and  played  vpon  certain  instruments  (whereof 
one  did  much  resemble  our  lute)  being  bellyed  like 
it,  but  longer  in  the  necke,  and  fretted  like  ours, 
but  had  only  foure  gut  strings.  Their  fingring  with 
the  left  hand  like  ours,  very  nimbly,  but  the  right 
hand  striketh  with  an  iuory  bone,  as  we  vse  to 
play  vpon  a  citterne  with  a  quill.  They  delighted 
much  with  their  musicke,  keeping  time  with  their 
hands." 

People  talk  of  Japan  as  already  half-Europeanised, 
but  within  a  couple  of  hours  after  our  landing  I  had 
seen  the  quaint  letters  of  the  "  Ancient  Mariner  " 
of  Gillingham  illustrated  in  twenty  particulars,  and 
found  that,  like  all  the  rest  of  Asia,  Japan  has 
caprices  of  fashion,  but  never  really  changes.  Even 
here,  where  the  Old  and  New  Worlds  throng  Yoko- 
hama Gulf  with  shipping,  and  you  may  hear  nearly 
every  known  tongue  spoken  upon  the  Bund,  a  walk 
of  half  an  hour  takes  you  away  to  scenes  and 
customs  which  are  as  old  as  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  Era,  and  older  still.  Under  the  thickest 
lacquer  of  new  ways,  the  antique  manners  and 
primitive  Asiatic  beliefs  survive  of  this  curious  and 
delightful  people,  in  whose  veins  Mongol  and  Malay 
blood  has  mingled  to  form  an  utterly  special  and 
unique  race. 

How  is  it  possible  to  convey  a   tithe  of  those   first 


l62 


SEAS  AND  LANDS. 


impressions  of  strangeness  and  vivid  interest  with 
which  the  streets  of  even  cosmopolitan  Yokohama 
fill  the  observant  newcomer?  Look  at  these  road- 
ways, moistened  with  a  recent  shower !  Nowhere 
else  in  the  world  would  you  see  the  mud  marked 
with    such    curious  tracks — innumerable   transverse 


■  *    *  H                *"•     at 

I^Be     ■ :  \^W*-Vv    ^^r    ***,.'  '^tf, 

L'  J  vl 

*: 

II 

rsty ; r> 

\- 

■  «»_*s>  -  <•'  ;-s  ■       .r«  - 

A  GEISHA. 


lines,  parallel  and  sharply  impressed,  as  if  a  goffer- 
ing roll  had  passed  everywhere  along.  These  are 
the  footprints  of  the  geta,  the  wooden  clogs  which 
all  Yokohama  wears  on  wet  days  ;  and  that  noise, 
like   the    voices   of  very   loud  crickets,  is  produced 


A    .TAPAXKSK    I.ADY. 


JAPAN.    m  163 

by  the  pit-a-pat  of  thousands  of  geta,  on  the  spots 
where  the  causeways  are  paved  with  stone  or 
pebbles.  Plunge  into  the  cheery,  chattering,  polite, 
and  friendly  crowd  going  and  coming  along  the 
Benten  Dori,  and  it  is  as  if  you  were  living  on  a 
large  painted  and  lacquered  tea-tray,  the  figures  of 
which,  the  little  gilded  houses,  the  dwarf  trees, 
and  the  odd  landscape,  suddenly  jumped  up  from 
the  dead  plane  into  the  living  perpendicular,  and 
started  into  busy  being.  Here,  too,  are  all  the 
pleasant  little  people  you  have  known  so  long  upon 
fans  and  screens.  Take  the  first  that  conies  along — 
this  tiny  Japanese  lady,  whoni  you  left,  as  you 
thought,  on  the  lid  of  the  glove-box  at  home. 
Tripping  along  upon  her  traraji,  she  wears  that 
kimono  of  puce-coloured  silk  with  the  white  storks, 
which  you  so  well  remember,  the  obi  of  amber  and 
blue  satin,  tied  round  her  little  body  and  swelling 
into  enormous  puffed  bows  behind — 

"  She's  a  little  bit  thick  in  the  waist,  the  waist ; 
But  then  she  was  never  once  laced,  once  laced  !  " 

Her  snow-white  socks,  which  only  just  cover  the 
little  foot,  are  divided  into  a  private  room  for  the 
great  toe,  and  a  parlour  for  the  little  toes,  which 
gives  her  the  air  of  being  a  little  -pigeon  with  white 
feet;  and  she  waddles  prettily,  somewhat  like  a 
pigeon.  The  kimono  is  folded  demurely  across  her 
little  bosom,  and  her  long  sleeves  hang  down  from 
the  small  brown  wrists  and  arms  to  her  knees.  In 
these  receptacles  she  keeps  sheets  of  soft  tough 
paper,   with    which   she    blows  her  small     nose  and 


164 


SEAS  AND  LANDS. 


wipes  the  dust  from  her  dainty  skirts,  besides 
innumerable  other  articles  of  constant  use,  such 
as  her  cards,  her  chop-sticks,  perhaps  her  special 
porcelain  cup  for  tea.  She  has  the  little  clear-cut 
almond  eyes  which  the  artist  so  faithfully  depicted, 
the  funny  little  nose — "  adpressus  " — flattened  into 


A   COUNTRY   GIRL. 


the  little  rosy,  laughing  face,  which  presents  a  lovely 
mouth  with  the  whitest  shining  teeth,  full  curving 
lips,  and  dimpled  chin,  and  amber-coloured  neck 
and  throat  losing  themselves  softly  in  the  tender 
folds  of  the  kimono.     Her  hands  are  small  and  fine, 


A    MAI  h    SKKVANT. 


JAPAN.  165 

the  little  nails  veritable  rose-leaves  ;  and  in  her 
glossy  hair  she  wears  a  red  camellia  witli  ever  so 
many  little  fantastic  pins  stuck  up  and  down  the 
smooth  waves  of  it.  But  there  is  where  the  artist 
of  the  fan  and  glove-box  failed.  His  palette  had 
not  any  black  pigments  black  enough  to  represent 
the  night-dark  depths  of  the  tresses  of  the  Japanese 
girl.  Those  puffed  and  perfumed  bandeaux  of  oiled 
coiffure,  so  carefully  dressed,  and  arranged  so  that 
no  single  hair  strays  from  the  rigid  splendour  of 
the  toilette  room,  would  make  a  jetty  spot  on  the 
heart  of  midnight.  So  black  that  the  very  highest 
lights  of  it  are  blue-black  beyond  inky  blackness, 
1  tlaek  so  that  ebony  would  be  grey  beside  it,  the 
glittering  tenebrosity  of  it  makes  her  little  visage 
and  her  little  nape  and  throat  emerge  like  dyed 
ivory  from  the  contrast. 

Then  the  Kuruma-ya,  the  jinrikisha  men  !  Much 
as  you  have  heard  and  read  about  them,  you  will 
almost  die  with  laughter  when  you  call  one  from  the 
stand  where  the  little  machines  are  ranged  like  fairy 
hansom  cabs,  and  start  for  your  first  ride.  With  a 
hat  on  his  shaggy  head  like  a  white  washing-basin, 
with  a  red  or  blue  blanket  over  his  shoulders,  his 
little  legs  tightly  encased  in  black  cloth  drawers,  his 
feet  thrust  into  straw  sandals,  his  name  and  number 
gaily  painted  on  his  back,  "  San-ju-ban,"  or  what- 
ever else  his  ticket  proclaims  him,  starts  off  at  a 
run  with  the  ridiculous  perambulator  into  which 
you  have  entered,  and  whisks  yon  here,  there,  and 
everywhere  for  fifteen  cents,  his  little  hoots  twink- 
ling   between    the    slender    shafts,     bedecked     with 


1 66  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

bands  of  tin-foil.  On  all  sides,  as  you  walk  about 
Yokohama,  the  cry  will  be  heard  from  the  Kuruma 
stands  of  "  Sha,  Sha ! "  answering  to  the  London 
"  Keb,  sir ! "  and  should  you  have  picked  up  a 
little  of  the  language  the  polite  phrases  of  the  two- 
legged  steed  will  be  a  good  sample  of  "  honorific 
Japanese."  "  If  the  honourable  lord  does  not  give 
himself  the  trouble  of  much  illustrious  delay,  the 
fare  will  only  be  20  sen.  Condescend  to  make 
gracious  use  of  this  worthless  servant !  "  Then  the 
children. 

Japan  is  evidently  a  Paradise  for  babies  and  boys 
and  girls.  The  babies  are  one  and  all  slung 
upon  the  back  in  a  deep  fold  of  the  kimono. 
There  they  sleep,  eat,  drink,  and  wobble  their  little 
shaven  pates  to  and  fro,  with  jolly  little  beaming 
visages,  and  fat  brown  hands  and  arms.  The 
children  are  friends  of  everybody,  and  play  ball 
and  fly  kites  in  the  most  crowded  thoroughfares, 
never  rebuked,  never  ill-treated,  with  grave  happy 
ways,  and  long  flowing  robes,  which  give  a  certain 
quaint  dignity  to  even  the  youngest.  Coolies  go 
about  carrying  huge  burthens  on  balanced  bamboo 
baskets ;  fishermen  hawk  odd-looking  piscine  speci- 
mens in  white  tubs  ;  the  blind  amma,  or  shampooer, 
wanders  up  and  down  tooting  a  plaintive  note 
upon  a  double  pipe  of  reed,  to  notify  that  he  is 
ready  to  knead  and  pummel  anybody  troubled  with 
rheumatism ;  the  isha,  or  physician,  passes  with  his 
drug-case  hitched  into  his  waistband  by  an  ivory 
netske ;  the  miller,  standing  naked  behind  the 
string-screen  of  his  shop,  grinds  rice  between,  two 


JAPAN 


167 


stones,  his  brown  limbs  powdered  with  the  fine 
flour;  the  bath-man  lifts  the  blue  cloth  curtain 
of  his  establishment,  and  begs  you  to  "  make 
honourable  entrance."  If  you  do  you  will  see  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men — and  women,  too — 
amicably    tubbing    together,  and    will    be     yourself 


THE    13  A 15  V. 


invited  to  disrobe  and  sit  in  a  tub,  which  will  scald 
you,  if  not  heedful,  for  the  Japanese  take  their 
baths  at  nearly  the  temperature  which  boils  an  egg. 
And  the  little  shops,  and  the  little  goods,  and  the 
little,  funny,  impossible   articles    bought    and    sold  ; 


1 68  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

and  the  little,  placid,  pleasant  folk  laughing  and 
trotting  about  the  ways ;  and  the  little  trees  grow- 
in  every  nook,  and  the  little  absurd  cakes  and 
little  morsels  of  food,  and  little  cups  and  little 
bowls  which  they  use.  I  know  I  abuse  this  adject- 
tive  "  little,"  but  all  in  Japan  is  chisai,  choito,  except 
the  shrimps — which  are  colossal — and  the  sea,  and 
the  mountains. 

But  the  word  "  mountains  "  reminds  me  of  Fuji- 
San,  and  one  ought  to  speak  first  of  this  prodigious 
and  renowned  eminence,  which  is  clearly  visible 
from  many  spots  in  Yokohama.  So,  for  the  present, 
I  leave  the  ever- wonderful  population  of  the  Japanese 
towns  and  pay  tribute  of  distant  respect  to  sublime 
"  Fuji."  The  highest  mountain  in  Japan,  it  stands 
between  the  j)rovinces  of  Suruga  and  Kai.  Its 
height  is  variously  stated  at  12,234  English  feet, 
12,365  feet,  and  13,287  feet.  According  to  the 
ancient  Japanese  legend,  Fuji  arose  in  a  single 
night,  while  the  Biwa  Lake,  near  Kioto,  was  formed 
simultaneously.  Eruptions  are  mentioned  as  having 
taken  place  in  the  years  799,  864,  936,  1082,  1649, 
and  1707.  The  last  began  December  16, 1707,  and 
continued  till  January  22,  1708.  On  this  occasion 
the  hump  called  Ho-yei-zan,  on  the  upper  slope  of 
the  south  side  of  the  mountain,  was  formed.  Mount 
Fuji  stands  by  itself,  rising  with  one  majestic  sweep 
from  a  plain  which  is  almost  surrounded  by  ranges 
of  mountains.  The  southern  side  curves  down  to 
the  sea,  its  graceful  line  being  only  broken  on  the 
south-east  by  the  rugged  peaks  of  Ashidaka-yama. 
The  ascent  can  be  made  from  five  different  points, 


JAPAX. 


169 


viz.,  Murayama,  Suyama,  Subashiri,  Yoshida,  and 
Shito-ana.  The  slope  of  the  mountain  is  richly  cul- 
tivated with  rice,  tea,  tobacco,  millet,  and  various 
vegetables,  and  higher  up  the  paper  plant,  mihumnta 
(Edgeworthia  papyrifera)  abounds.  Although  in  the 
present  day  it  is  not  necessary  to  obtain  permission 


A    Ml'SVMK. 


before  making  the  ascent,  still  a  certain  amount  of 
etiquette  attaches  itself  to  the  formal  ceremony  of 
opening  the  mountain  on  the  lirst  day  of  the  eighth 
moon.  Our  earliest  glimpse  of  this  famous  volcano. 
the  finest  peak  of  its  kind  in  the  world,  was  obtained 


170  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

from  the  "  101  steps."  At  the  top  of  these  steps, 
beyond  the  Creek  of  Yokohama,  is  a  Tea  House, 
known  to  all,  called  "Fujiya"  or  the  "Abode  of 
the  Wisteria."  We  had  rejmired  thither  to  drink 
the  little  cups  of  pale  yellow  beverage  for  which 
the  Japanese  have  so  refined  a  passion,  and  to  nibble 
,the  little  yellow  and  red  cakes,  and  smoke  the  little 
brass  pipes,  while  chatting  with  O  Take  San,  the 
agreeable  Lady  of  the  Establishment.  We  had 
finished  a  repast,  calculated  to  stay  the  appetite, 
perhaps,  of  a  butterfly,  or  a  Japanese ;  had  heard 
the  music  of  the  "  samisen,"  and  some  less  abstruse 
melodies,  among  them  a  song  composed  to  a  Yoko- 
hama belle  by  an  American  officer,  of  which  here 
are  two  verses — 

"  I  strive  to  make  love,  but  in  vain,  in  vain, 
My  language,  I  know,  is  not  plain,  not  plain, 
Whenever  I  try, 
She  says,  '  Go  men  nasai 
Watakshi  wakarimasen-masen.'  * 

She  plays  on  the  soft '  samisen,'  '  samisen,' 
She  sings  me  a  song  now  and  then — and  then, 

And  when  I  go  away 

She  sweetly  will  say, 
'  Sayonara  !'  '  Do  please  come  again — again.'  " 

Our  "  afternoon  tea "  was  concluded,  the  shoji  (a 
screen  of  frame  and  paper)  was  drawn  back,  we 
resumed  our  shoes,  and  with  many  a  "  O  yasumi 
nasai !  "  and  "  Sayonara  !  "  proceeded  to  descend 
the   "  101   stepp."       It   was   nearly    sunset,  and   lo ! 

*  "  Deign  honourably  to  excuse  me,  but  I  do  not  understand." 


Tin:  iirxDKKii  and  unk  stk.ps  yukomoma. 


JAPAN.  i  7 , 

half-way  down  in  the  rosy  west,  suddenly  wo  spied 
the  glorious  hill  raising  its  sharply  pointed  cone,  all 
brilliant  with  snow,  above  the  belt  of  light  grey  and 
rosy  clouds  which  lay  along  the  horizon.  Although 
sixty  or  seventy  miles  distant,  the  giant  peak  stood 
forth  plain  as  a  silhouette  of  silver  upon  the  golden 
background  of  the  western  heavens.  It  was  good 
to  behold  Fuji-San — the  "Lady  of  Mountains" — so 
soon  after  arrival,  and  no  wonder  could  be  felt,  even 
from  that  dim  and  remote  vision,  that  the  Japanese 
revere  their  beautiful  and  isolated  volcano.  In- 
numerable are  the  legends  attaching  to  it.  On  the 
summit  dwells  a  deity — the  guardian  God  of  the 
Crater — who  is  styled  "  O-ana-Mochi  no  Mikoto," 
the  "Protector  of  the  Great  Hole."  The  sand 
brought  down  during  the  daytime  by  the  feet  of 
many  pilgrims  reascends  of  itself  during  the  night. 
On  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  sixth  moon  the  snow  all 
disappears  from  the  summit  for  twelve  hours,  to 
make  the  visit  of  the  goddess  "Fuji-Sen-Gen" 
perfectly  convenient ;  and  reappears  the  following 
day  quite  punctually.  The  smoke  of  Fuji,  her 
snows,  her  green  girdle  of  canes  and  vines,  her 
feet  sandalled  with  flowers,  her  bosom  from  which 
issue  streams  fertilising  the  plains,  her  perfect  con- 
tour, her  majestic  beauty,  till  Japanese  poetry  with 
passionate  themes  of  eulogy  and  adoration.  One 
native  bard  exclaims — 

"  What  words  can  tell,  what  accents  sing 
Thine  awful  grandeur?     Tis  thy  breast 
Whence  Fuzugawa's  wavelets  spring, 
Where  Narusana's  waters  rest." 


1 72  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Divine,  truly,  in  majesty  and  grace  rose  the  tall 
peak,  about  the  precise  height  of  which  in  feet  and 
metres  it  seems  almost  impious  to  disjoute,  when  the 
living  lovely  vision  of  this  mountain  once  comes  in 
sight.  For  days  and  weeks  together  the  clouds  often 
shroud  that  splendid  cone,  and  you  can  only  know 
where  Fuji-San  stands  by  the  masses  of  cumuli  and 
cumulo-strati  gathered  about  her  from  the  Pacific 
Ocean  at  her  foot.  All  the  more  happy  did  we  feel 
to  catch  a  glance  of  the  Goddess  on  the  third  day  of 
our  sojourn  in  Japan.  The  omen  was  good,  and  we 
mounted  our  jinrikishas  and  trundled  home  through 
the  twinkling  paper  lanterns  and  busy  little  streets, 
with  the  resolve  to  see  Fuji  presently  close  at  hand, 
even  though  the  season  should  forbid  the  ascent  of 
its  sublime  slopes. 

Yokohama,  Nov.  8,  1889. 


CHAPTER    XTIT. 


A    JAPANESE    CITY. 


We  are  on  English  soil  again,  for  a  time,  being  the 
happy  guests  of  the  British  Minister  and  Mrs.  Eraser, 
at  her  Britannic  Majesty's  Legation  in  Tokio,  the 
capital  city  of  Japan,  formerly  known  as  Yeddo. 
The  run  by  railway  from  Yokohama  is  short  but  inter- 
esting. The  carriages  are  of  the  English  pattern  ; 
the  names  of  the  stations  are  painted  up  in  English 
as  well  as  in  Japanese,  and  the  eighteen  miles  of 
flat  country  are  traversed  in  about  three-quarters  of 
an  hour.  In  quitting  Yokohama  yon  pass  under  a 
large  Shinto  Temple,  and  skirt  the  fishing  town  of 
Kanagawa  ("The  Metal  River"),  where  foreigners 
were  first  settled.  Then  you  come  to  Tsnrnmi 
("Place  to  Bee  Storks  "),  surrounded  by  extensive 
rice-fields,  in  which  the  people  were  reaping  the 
ripe  stalks  and  hanging  them  in  circular-shaped 
sheaves  upon  the  stems  of  the  trees,  so  that  every 
hedge-row  presented  a  most  curious  appearance  with 
these  lines  of  swathed  trunks.  Tobacco  grew  green 
and  plentiful  everywhere,  with  patches  of  onions 
and  of  those  gigantic  radishes  which  the  Japanese 
so  much  affect.  Kawasaki  ("River-Bend")  is  next 
passed,  where  numberless  cargo-boats  thatched  with 


174  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

mats,  and  gliding  sampans,  driven  by  big-handled 
oars,  testify  to  a  lively  water  traffic.  The  boat 
women  work  and  row  with  their  babies  tied  upon 
their  backs,  the  little  black  round  heads  and  doll- 
like eyes  wagging  and  winking  behind  the  totally 
unconcerned  mother.  Omori  ("  The  Great  Forest  ") 
succeeds,  but  its  trees  have  mainly  disappeared, 
though  Kamada,  close  by,  is  famous  for  its  plum- 
blossoms  in  April. 

The  love  of  the  people  for  flowers  is  one  of  their 
many  charming  traits.  We  are  too  late,  or  too 
early,  for  the  red  and  white  lotuses,  the  tree- 
peonys  and  the  golden  lilies,  which,  with  the 
jasmines  and  roses,  embellish  the  spring  and 
autumn  lakes  and  fields ;  but  it  is  the  cream 
of  the  season  for  the  chief  blossom  of  Japan,  her 
imperial  symbol — the  chrysanthemum ;  and  truly 
splendid  are  the  displays  seen  of  this  many-hued 
and  multiform  flower.  Half  the  women  wear  a 
purple  or  amber  pompone  in  their  hair  or  bosom, 
and  one  of  our  objects  in  coming  at  once  to  Tokio 
is  to  be  present  at  the  annual  exhibition  of  chrysan- 
themums, held  in  the  Emperor's  gardens.  Passing 
Ikegami  ("  The  Upper  Lake  "),  we  next  see  a  famous 
temple,  dedicated  to  the  ancient  Buddhist  saint, 
Nichiren,  and  another  sacred  to  Daikoku,  the  God 
of  Wealth  and  Good  Fortune,  whose  highly  comic 
picture — sitting  upon  bags  of  rice  which  rats  are 
busily  gnawing — figures  on  all  the  one  and  five  yen 
bank-notes  current  in  Japan.  The  jocund  spirit 
of  the  people  manifests  itself  even  in  these  grave 
matters  of  finance.     They  will  not  and  cannot  take 


A  JAPANESE    CITY.  ,75 

either  life  or  religion  an  grand  scrieu.r.  Another 
ornamental  shrine  hereabouts,  rich  with  lacquer  and 
carvings,  is  raised  in  honour  of  Mioken,  the  Pole- 
Star.  And  thus  our  train  comes  to  Shinagawa 
("River  of  Merchandise"),  at  the  head  of  the  Gulf 
— a  place  mainly  populated  by  fishermen,  who  catch 
and  sell  extraordinary  quantities  of  odd-looking  fish, 
and  of  those  gigantic  blue  shrimps  already  observed, 
fhe  line  now  curves  round,  through  suburbs  of  the 
metropolis,  styled,  respectively.  Mita  ("The  Three 
Fields")  and  Shimbashi  ("The  New  Bridge")  ;  and 
then  we  are  in  the  station  of  Tokio,  a  really  vast 
city,  nine  miles  long  and  eight  miles  wide,  con- 
taining over  a  .  million  inhabitants,  the  seat  of 
Government,  as  well  as  of  the  Shiro,  or  Castle, 
wherein  resides  his  Imperial  Majesty  the  Mikado. 
This  Shiro,  with  its  huge  ramparts  of  cyclopean 
masonry  and  wide  moats  full  of  wild  fowl,  banked 
by  lofty  slopes  of  grass  and  rows  of  ancient  trees, 
is  one  of  tin1  perpetually  striking  features  of  Tokio. 
While  driving  or  riding  in  a  jinrikisha  you  are 
always  entering  or  leaving  its  massive  gateways, 
guarded  by  neat  little  soldiers,  and  capped  with 
Chinese-looking  gate-houses.  The  broad  moats 
swarm  with  fish,  as  well  as  with  teal,  widgeon, 
and  duck,  but  nobody  is  permitted  to  angle  or 
-hoot  there. 

Tokio  gives  the  impression  of  being  mainly  a 
bigger  Yokohama,  without  the  beautiful  sea  view, 
albeit  it  possesses  its  own  maritime  quarter,  and  is 
washed  there  by  the  head  of  the  Gulf,  into  which 
runs    the    River    Sumida.      Yet     the    interminable 


176  SEAS  A  AW   LANDS. 

thoroughfares  present  a  far  fuller  stream  of  life,  and 
even  more  surprising  novelties  than  the  seaport. 
Nothing  but  an  instantaneous  photograph,  carefully 
coloured,  could  impart  even  an  idea  of  the  pictur- 
esque population  of  the  Nakadori  or  of  Ginza  Street. 
The  trundling  jinrikishas ;  the  little  shock-headed 
Japanese  in  dark  blue  coats  and  tight  trousers ;  the 
tiny  womenkind  with  hair  banded  and  brushed  into 
fantastic,  glossy,  immovable  coiffures ;  the  mothers 
with  the  slit-eyed  babies  lashed  upon  their  backs — 
so  like  to  dolls  that  you  almost  look  for  the  wire 
wherewith  to  make  them  wink  and  squeak  ;  the  smart 
little  soldiers  in  brick-red  breeches  ;  the  immacu- 
lately gloved  policemen ;  the  postmen  in  soup-plate 
hats  running  along  with  letter-bags ;  the  endless 
clatter  of  the  innumerable  wooden  pattens;  the 
shuffling  of  the  countless  waraji;  the  slow,  shaggy 
oxen  dragging  the  bamboo  waggons ;  the  pretty, 
grave,  delightful,  happy  children,  racing  along  the 
public  way,  with  flowing  sleeves,  like  those  of  a 
Master  of  Arts,  and  flowers  in  their  hair,  or  flying 
kites  of  astonishing  devices,  or  clambering  about  the 
stone  gods  and  demons  of  some  Buddhist  temple,  or 
broadly  and  blandly  staring  at  the  foreigner  with 
languid  almond  eyes  and  little  painted  mouths  wide 
open ;  the  fishermen,  with  specimens  of  piscine 
natural  history  which  make  mermaids  commonplace, 
and  sea-serpents  appetising ;  the  gigantic  radishes ; 
the  absurd  English  inscriptions  on  the  sign-boards ; 
the  funny  small  shops,  with  their  hanging  screens  of 
blue  cloth  and  reeds ;  the  squatting  shopkeepers ; 
the  cakeman  with  his  tinkling  bell ;  the  blind  amma 


A  JAPANESE   CITY.  177 

or  shampooer ;  the  small  black  and  white  houses, 
ranged  in  endless  rows  as  if  out  of  a  wooden  toy-box, 
with  paper  fronts  and  sliding  shoji;  the' tootling  of 
the  tramcar  horns;  the  spiek  and  span  musumes 
tripping,  with  shining  tresses  and  pigeon-feet,  to 
dance  or  to  dinner  ;  the  startling  things  in  toyshops, 
and  restaurants,  and  "butcheries"  where  badgers, 
wild  boars,  and  silver  pheasants  are  hanging  up  at 
the  poulterers',  beside  ducks,  and  snipe,  and  hares; 
the  great  kites  and  noisy  crows  sweeping  round  and 
round  above  the  traffic  of  the  bazaar,  and  at  the  four- 
cross  way,  where  a  long  vista  opens  westward,  Fuji's 
grand  and  perfect  peak  sixty  miles  off,  towering  above 
the  rosy  clouds  of  sunset,  lifting  itself  to  our  far-off 
gaze  in  such  majesty  of  form  and  colour  as  no  other 
mountain  in  the  world  possesses — a  sight  that  puts 
on  the  other  sights,  as  it  were,  the  Creator's  own 
mark  when  He  made  this  wonderful,  delightful, 
unique,  and  mysterious  Japan. 

Dark  blue,  dark  grey,  puce,  purple,  and  black  em- 
broidered with  white,  are  the  leading  colours  of  the 
autumn  dresses  of  the  Japanese  out  of  doors,  so  that 
the  general  aspect  of  the  moving  crowd  is  not  so 
variegated  as  the  throng  of  an  Indian  town  presents. 
But  a  happier  looking  population  can  nowhere  be 
studied;  they  go  chattering  and  laughing  along,  the 
porters  singing  between  their  balanced  burdens,  the 
air  all  full,  far  or  near,  of  pretty  salutations — "  () 
hayo  !  O  hayo  gozaimas  !"  or  "  Sayonara  !  sayonara  !" 
and  at  evening,  "  O  yasumi  nasai  !"  ("Condescend 
to  take  honourable  repose  !")  The  deep  reverences 
these  little  people   make  to  each  other    in   the  street 


178  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

are  charming  for  grace  and  apparent  goodwill — the 
commonest  coolie  bends  with  the  air  of  a  finished 
teacher  of  deportment  when  he  meets  a  friend  or 
accepts  an  engagement.  Indoors  the  obeisances  are 
more  lowly  still.  The  little  foreheads  touch  the 
earth  or  the  spotlessly  clean  mats,  and  the  little 
hands,  almost  always  exquisitely  formed — are  spread 
out,  while  the  kneeling  musume  prostrates  herself 
and  musically  utters  the  irrashai  !  The  children  in 
the  streets  are  for  ever  breaking  into  a  dancing  run 
for  pure  glee  of  existence,  clattering  along  in  merry 
groups  upon  their  wooden  clogs.  Or  else  they 
gather  at  street  corners  and  play  softly  boisterous 
games  with  each  other,  singing  songs  and  beating 
hands  to  the  tune.  I  secured  the  words  of  one  of 
these,  where  the  little  brown-eyed,  black-pated,  Japa- 
nese babies  stood  in  a  ring,  and  swung  their  hands 
first  outwards  and  then  inwards,  simultaneously.  It 
seems  they  were  thus  alternately  imitating  the  open- 
ing and  the  closing  of  flowers,  expanding  the  circle 
at  the  word  "  hiraita  "  ("  opened  "),  and  contracting  it 
at  "  tzubonda  "  ("  closed  ").  This  joyous  little  street 
song,  in  the  vernacular,  was — 

"  Hiraitu  ;  hiraita ! 
Nanno  hana  hiraita  ? 
Renge  no  hana  hiraita, 
Hiraita  to  oraottara,  niata  tsubonda. 

Tsubonda ;  tsubonda 

Nanno  hana  tsubonda  ? 

Rensre  no  liana  tsubonda 

Tsubonda  to  omottara,  mata  hiraita," 


A  JAPANESE    CITY.  i79 

Which  is,  being  interpreted  — 

"  Opened  ;  opened  ! 
"Which  is  the  flower  has  opened  ? 
The  lotus-flower  has  opened. 
You  thought  so,  hut  now  it  is  shut. 

Shut !     Close  shut ! 
"Which  is  the  flower  that's  shut  ? 
Tis  the  lotus  blossom  that's  folded. 
You  thought  so,  but  now  it  expands  ! " 

There  is  another  graceful  nursery  rhyme  that  the 
dark-eyed  Japanese  babies  sing  in  the  streets,  which 
goes — 

"  Chocho !  Chocho  ! 
Na  no  ha  ni  tomare 
Na  no  ha  ni  akitara 
Yoshi  no  ha  ni  tomare." 

And  this,  again,  in  English  as  simple,  is — 

"  Butterfly,  butterfly ! 

Light  on  the  rape  and  feed  ; 
If  you  are  tired  of  honey  there, 

Fly  to  the  flower  of  the  reed." 

But  the  place  of  places  in  Tokio  to  see  the  Japanese 
small  folk  is  Asakusa,  a  quarter  where  a  kind  of 
permanent  fair  is  established  round  the  eminently 
popular  temple  of  Kin  Riu  Zan.  Tn  this  large  and 
striking  edifice  is  preserved  a  small  image  of  the 
Goddess  Kwannon  Sama,  made  of  pure  gold,  which 
was  hauled  up  in  a  net  from  the  Sumida  River,  and 
is  too    sacred  ever  to  be  publicly  exhibited.      The 


180  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

shrine  is  naturally  a  favourite  one  with  fishermen, 
but  all  classes  frequent  it,  and  curious  it  is  to  stand 
within  the  sanctuary  and  watch  the  naivete  of  the 
worshippers.  They  go  first  to  a  little  hut,  and  pay 
an  infinitesimal  coin  for  leave  to  wash  their  hands 
and  mouths  with  water  from  a  wooden  ladle,  for  it 
would  not  be  right  to  go  un purified  to  pray.  Then 
they  pick  out  the  particular  incarnation  in  the  great 
fane  which  suits  their  need,  for  one  image  is  good 
at  curing  stomach-aches,  another  at  bringing  fish 
into  the  net,  a  third  in  making  fair  weather  at  sea, 
and  a  fourth  figure  in  wood  which  will  accord  a 
becoming  connexion  if  you  stroke  its  face,  has  that 
countenance  now  completely  rubbed  flat  and  feature- 
less by  the  innumerable  palms  01  women  and  girls 
coming  thither  to  benefit  by  the  goddess.  With 
hands  and  lips  washed,  the  votary  pulls  a  bell-rope 
which  is  to  awaken  the  attention  of  the  diety. 
Then  he  throws  a  coin  or  two  into  a  grated  re- 
ceptacle, joins  his  fingers  together,  breathes  the 
supplication  or  whispers  the  wish,  and  afterwards 
claps  his  hands  to  let  the  divinity  know  that  the 
affair  is  terminated,  and  that  others  can  take  their 
turn. 

There  is  a  pagoda  near  the  temple,  which  is 
approached  by  a  stone-jmved  walk.  On  both  sides 
of  this  stand  bright  little  shops  for  the  sale  of 
toys,  ornaments,  &c.  The  huge  red  building  at 
the  entrance  contains  two  gods  of  colossal  size, 
in  large  niches,  protected  by  iron  screens.  They 
are  the  tutelary  guardians  of  the  gate,  and  are 
called  "  Ni-0  "  ("  Two  Kings  ").     One  stands  ready 


A  JAPANESE    CITY.  im 

to  welcome  those  who  repent  of  their  sins  and 
determine  to  lead  new  lives;  the  other  is  the  special 
nod  of  children.  The  tame  pigeons  fiviii<jr  about 
are  held  sacred;  and  to  give  pious  people  an 
opportunity  to  feed  them,  women  sell  peas  or  rice 
in  little  earthenware  pots.  The  Japanese  do  not. 
visit  Asakusa  for  pious  motives  only,  but  for 
pleasure  also.  Hence  within  the  temple  grounds 
are  theatres,  archery  galleries,  tea  booths,  and  a 
variety  exhibition  of  birds,  beasts,  and  dwarfed 
trees.  A  white  lath  and  plaster  model  of  Fuji-San 
rises  near,  about  110  feet  in  height  and  1000  feet 
in  circumference.  Large  numbers  ascend  to  the 
top  daily,  some  days  as  many  as  6000.  All  the 
paved  way  leading  to  the  vast  painted  temple  is 
full  of  toyshops,  and  all  the  small  people  of  Tokio 
seem  to  repair  thither  on  foot,  or  rocking  about  upon 
the  maternal  back.  The  clattering  of  the  wooden 
clogs,  the  blast  of  tin  trumpets,  the  flutter  of  flags 
and  toy  balloons,  the  laughter,  the  chatter,  the  gossip 
of  brown  matrons  comparing  their  brown  babies  and 
their  home  experiences,  the  good  temper  and  dulce 
far  nitrite  of  Asakusa  in  the  afternoon,  are  things  to 
remember. 

Here,  too,  as  in  other  quarters  at  the  present 
season,  there  are  chrysanthemum  shows,  and  the 
natives  will  spend  all  spring  and  summer  in  training 
tjie  vines  and  growing  the  flowers  for  the  exhibition, 
to  which  the  visitor  is  charged  about  one  cent. 
Each  show  contains  two  or  three  booths,  fitted  up 
with  figures  to  illustrate  some  historical  or  tradi- 
tional    theme,    and    the     chrysanthemum     blossoms 


1 82  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

have  been  attached  so  as  to  constitute  natural  robes 
and  scenic  accessories.  Sometimes  a  whole  fable 
will  be  thus  illustrated  by  means  of  several  dis- 
tinct floral  tableaux.  The  skill  displayed  by  these 
Japanese  florists  is  abundantly  entertaining ;  but  the 
most  striking  objects  are  always  those  dwarfed  and 
twisted  trees  which  they  know  how  to  produce,  so 
that,  like  the  Chinese,  they  can  carry  about  a  fir  or 


THE   TOKIO   CAB. 


thuja,  or  plum  tree,  sixty  or  eighty  year  old,  in  a 
small  flower-pot.  This  is  obtained  with  infinite 
patience  by  pinching  off  the  rootlets  week  by  week, 
and  nipping  and  training  the  ends  of  the  branchlets 
till  the  tree  is  stunted  into  the  exact  likeness  of  a 
giant  of  the  forest,  while  it  will  not  measure,  per- 
haps, more  than  twenty-four  inches  high.  Then 
they  dot  these  pigmy  timber  trees  all  about  a  tiny 


A  JAPANESE    CITY.  183 

artificial  hill,  and  plant  all  over  it  miniature  rocks 
and  crags,  and  dig  out  fairy-like  lakes,  and  lead 
hither  and  thither  absurdly  pretentious  little  rivers, 
which,  for  their  bridges,  cataracts,  and  rapids,  might 
be  the  Nile,  the  Missouri,  or  the  Orinoco  ;  and  near 
at  hand  they  rear  a  delicious  little  tea-house,  and  sit 
there  sipping  ridiculously  small  doses  of  sake,  from 
thimble-like  cups,  nibbling  such  tiny  biscuits  as 
might  satisfy  the  appetite  of  a  butterfly,  smoking 
microscopic  pipes  of  brass  and  bamboo,  which  hold 
about  three  whiffs,  and  generally  thus  looking  upon 
life  through  a  reversed  telescope,  and  making  deli- 
cate and  friendly  fun  out  of  all  its  aspects.  If 
Buddhism  had  only  come  straight  to  Japan,  instead 
of  dribbling  thither  through  the  mud  of  China  and 
the  snows  of  Corea,  this  would  be  the  kingdom  where 
its  influence  would  show  best  and  brightest ! 

We  have  just  shared  in  the  honour  and  pleasure 
of  a  visit  to  the  Legation,  from  the  Countess 
Kuroda,  wife  of  the  ex-Prime  Minister  of  Japan, 
a  charming  and  accomplished  native  lady.  Her 
dress,  except  for  the  richness  of  its  soft  material, 
was  quiet  in  colour  and  cut,  almost  to  Quakerism, 
but  upon  her  long  hanging  sleeves  of  grey  were 
embroidered  in  white  silk  the  arms  and  badge  of 
one  of  the  greatest  Satsuma  houses.  She  talked 
the  gentle  flowing  Japanese,  which  has  no  gutturals, 
no  aspirates,  no  high  or  hard  inflections  and  accents 
(and  unhappily  no  letter  L),  in  the  usual  honorific 
style,  depreciating  herself  and  her  belongings,  and 
exalting  those  whom  she  addressed,  what  she  said 
being  deftly  interpreted  by  the  English  lady  attend- 


1 84  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

ing  her.  Inviting  us  to  her  house,  which  is  one 
of  the  handsomest,  it  is  said,  in  Tokio,  she  was 
careful  to  declare  it  "  a  poor  place,  unworthy  of 
such  visitors,"  and,  in  taking  leave,  begged  "to  be 
excused  for  wasting,  by  her  totally  unimportant 
speech  and  presence,  the  honourable  time  of  her 
dear  friends."  Her  husband,  the  Count  Kuroda, 
has  just  yielded  office  to  Prince  Sango,  of  the  Jiu- 
Shiu  party,  the  Conservatives  of  Japan  ;  and  there 
is  something  like  a  crisis,  in  truth,  in  the  political 
world  of  Tokio  just  now,  saddened,  as  we  are,  by 
the  attempted  assassination  of  one  of  the  foremost 
of  Japanese  statesmen.  I  am  told  that,  with  all 
their  good  qualities  and  bonhomie,  the  Japanese 
are  a  very  capricious  people  to  govern,  easily  grow- 
ing tired  of  a  new  man  or  measure.  An  immense 
experiment  is  impending  at  Tokio — the  installation 
of  the  first  Parliament  of  the  country,  for  which 
a  brand-new  Parliament  House  is  being  built  in 
one  of  the  more  open  quarters  of  the  great  city. 
Meantime,  a  prominent  reformer,  and  one  of  the 
authors  of  the  New  Constitution,  the  Count  Okuma, 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  is  slowly  recovering 
from  amputation  of  his  leg,  shattered  by  the  bomb 
of  a  Japanese  assassin,  who,  after  flinging  the  cruel 
missile,  cut  his  own  throat  on  the  spot,  and  died 
before  he  could  be  questioned.  Politically,  there- 
fore, things  are  not  too  quiet  in  the  imperial  capital  ; 
and,  perhaps,  it  is  partly  on  that  account  that  the 
garden  party  in  the  Palace  gardens,  to  which  we 
had  the  honour  of  an  invitation,  was  this  week  de- 
ferred.    But  it  is  to  come  off,  people  of  the  Court 


A  JAPANESE    CITY.  185 

say,  next  week,  and,  meantime,  we  shall .  make  a 
brief  run  to  Nikko,  to  see  the  famous  temples  and 
mountains  of  the  north,  returning  to  Tokio  for  the 
imperial  festivity  and  other  metropolitan  spectacles. 

British  Legation,  Tokio,  Nov.  11,  l«8lJ. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

RURAL   JAPAN. 

The  Emperor  being  still  indisposed,  and  the  garden 
party  at  the  Palace,  by  consequence,  deferred,  we 
took  advantage  of  the  interval  to  visit  Mkko,  some 
ninety  miles,  or  forty  ri,  north  of  Tokio.  A  railway 
runs  sixty  or  seventy  miles  of  this  distance,  to  a 
place  called  Utsunomiya — the  remaining  ri  must  be 
traversed  by  jinrikisha.  It  is  necessary  to  be  pro- 
vided with  a  passport  for  journeys  beyond  the  treaty 
limits — which  are  very  circumscribed — and  the  first 
policeman  encountered  at  the  railway  station  did 
not  fail  to  demand  and  to  inspect  the  imposing 
document  wherewith  we  stood  furnished.  It  forbade 
us — I  trust  it  may  be  added  needlessly — to  "  deface 
the  temples ;  to  ride  on  horseback  to  a  conflagration  ; 
to  trap,  snare,  or  hunt  wild  animals  without  license  ; 
or  to  resist  the  authorities  with  violence  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duty."  The  officer  at  the  station 
found  the  perpendicular  Japanese  characters  on  the 
document  which  we  presented  quite  satisfactory, 
and  bowed  to  the  earth  in  token  of  it.  On  entering 
our  railway  carriage  we  perceived  a  go-zen,  or  tea- 
tray,  thoughtfully  provided  by  the  company.  There 
stood  the  boiling  water,  in  a  chased  bronzed  kettle, 


RURAL  JAPAN.  187 

the  tiny  dainty  j>ot  with  green  tea  leaves  ready  for 
infusion,  and  the  small  cups  in  their  stand,  so  that, 
free  of  charge,  we  might  sip  o-cha  as  we  started. 

The  line  passes  through  low-lying  fields  with  har- 
vests of  rice,  tobacco,  cotton,  and  the  huge  radish, 
dai-kon,  fringed  with  waving  thickets  of  bamboo,  and 
populous  with  villages  of  little  lints  all  built  upon 
the  same  pattern,  with  fronts  of  framework  and 
paper,  and  roofs  of  fine  shingle  or  thatch.  Here 
and  there,  near  a  temple,  would  be  seen  a  "  garden 
of  the  dead " — stone  monuments  of  quaint  form 
inscribed  with  Japanese  letters,  and  interspersed 
with  chimps  of  the  red  camellia  or  tufts  of  chrysan- 
themum. Everywhere,  indeed,  is  seen  the  Ki-kn — 
imperial  blossom  of  Japan — growing  at  the  cottage 
door,  by  the  well,  in  the  temple  yard,  beside  the 
graves,  and  even  in  the  paths  intersecting  the  rice- 
fields.  Everywhere,  too,  are  visible  the  delightful 
Japanese  babies — most  placid  and  most  plump  of 
all  known  infanthood — rocking  and  blinking  in  the 
fold  of  the  mother's  kimono,  but  just  as  frequently 
tied  on  the  backs  of  old  men,  boys,  and  little 
maidens;  for  as  soon  as  a  Japanese  child  can  even 
toddle  about,  a  smaller  one,  who  cannot  yet  run  alone, 
is  swaddled  tightly  upon  its  shoulders.  The  babies 
thus,  see  everything,  share  everything,  take  part  in 
agriculture,  kite-flying,  shopping,  cooking,  gossiping, 
washing,  and  all  that  goes  forward  and  around,  which 
perhaps  gives  them  their  extraordinary  gravity  and 
worldly  wisdom,  mingled  with  gladness,  as  soon  as 
they  reach  the  mature  age  of  four  or  five.  They 
then  bow,  and  say  ohayho  !  and  carry  up  and  down 


1 88  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

another  baby,  and  shuffle  about  on  clogs,  as  if  life 
were  already  understood  by  them  quite  as  thoroughly 
as  by  their  mothers,  whose  wooden  pattens  make  the 
stations  echo  so  blithely  as  they  enter  or  quit  the 
train.  Round  almost  every  country  hut  the  yellow 
fruit  of  the  ka-ki,  or  j^ersimmon,  is  hanging. up  to 
dry  for  winter  use,  and  the  fruit  itself  may  be  seen 
on  the  leafless  tree,  like  a  smooth,  elongated  orange. 
On  the  left  of  the  line,  all  the  way  from  Tokio  to 
Utsunomiya,  the  beautiful  head  of  Fuji-San  per- 
petually shows  itself,  at  first  dim,  misty,  and  vaguely 
gilded  in  the  too  full  light  of  the  afternoon ;  then 
majestically  displaying  its  crown  of  snow  high  above 
a  belt  of  sunset  clouds';  and  lastly,  as  the  evening 
falls,  and  the  background  of  the  west  deepens  from 
rose  red  and  amber  to  grey  and  emerald  green, 
emerging  in  full  outline,  almost  from  base  to 
summit,  a  cone,  mathematically  perfect,  of  indigo 
blue,  dominating  the  whole  landscape  by  its  grace 
and  grandeur,  although  it  is  twenty  leagues,  as 
the  stork  flies,  to  the  foot  of  that  stupendous 
mountain. 

We  arrive  in  the  dark  at  Utsunomiya,  hand  our 
tickets  to  collectors,  who  bow  down  to  the  platform, 
and  our  light  baggage  and  ourselves  to  jinrikisha 
men,  who  trundle  away  up  an  interminable  street, 
glittering  with  paper  lanterns  and  the  lamps  of  a 
thousand  little  open  shop-fronts.  Just  as  we  wonder 
whether  there  will  ever  be  any  "other  end"  to 
ITtsunomiya,  the  Kurumas  are  wdieeled  sharply 
round  and  brought  up  with  a  general  shout  of 
arrival  in  front  of  a  Japanese  inn.     The  peculiarity 


Ri'RAL  J  A  PAX.  189 

of  such  an  establishment,  on  a  first  experience,  is 
that  you  see  all  of  it  at  once,  like  a  doll's  house 
of  which  the  facade  has  been  flung  open.  Then- 
is  the  little  passage  full  of  ivaraji  and  clogs,  by 
which  you  enter  between  raised  platforms  covered 
with  mats  so  spotless  that  you  would  not,  as  you 
must  not,  tread  upon  them  except  with  unshod 
feet.  There  is  the  shining  ladder  of  dark  polished 
wood  without  hand-rails,  by  which  you  pass  to  the 
little  rooms  upstairs,  all  visible  at  a  glance  with 
their  sliding  doors  and  papered  lattices.  There  is 
the  kitchen,  with  charcoal  fire  burning  under  the 
rice-cauldron,  and  beside  it  a  little  paved  way  to 
the  bath-room  and  minor  offices.  The  entire  pcr- 
sonnel  of  the  inn  upon  your  first  approach — in- 
cluding mistress,  proprietor,  and  four  or  five  female 
"helps,"  with  glossy  hair,  and  short,  white,  cloven 
stockings — prostrates  itself  on  the  vd^c  of  the 
matting,  with  hands  spread,  foreheads  touching  the 
black  lacquer  border,  and  soft  little  choruses  of 
"  0  hayo  gozarimas"  and  "0  ide  nasal;"  that 
is  to  say,  "  Your  honourable  arrival  is  most  wel- 
come!"  "Please  to  make  your  honourable  en- 
trance!" Shoes  are  slipped  off  and  indoor  slippers 
offered,  into  which  thrusting  your  feet,  you  slide 
and  glide  with  many  a  bow  and  "  Arigafo  "  ("Thank 
you")  over  the  immaculate  mats  and  up  the  shining 
ladder  to  the  blamelessly  clean  pigeon-loft  assigned 
for  your  use.  Squares  of  padded  cloth  are  placed 
on  the  floor,  and  the  hibachi,  or  "  fire-box,"  is 
brought  in  and  set  in  the  midst,  with  two  brass 
knitting:    needles    wherebv    to    stir    and     trim     the 


i  go  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

glowing  charcoal.  The  musume,  a  young  waiting 
girl,  next  presents,  always  on  her  knees,  tiny  cups 
of  pale  yellow  tea,  unsweetened  and  unmilked,  and, 
learning  that  you  will  partake  of  dinner,  beats  the 
matting  with  her  little  brow,  and  goes  to  command 
it.  Various  members  of  the  household  drop  in 
meanwhile  to  salute  and  inspect  the  visitors,  and 
presently  the  repast  arrives. 

First  appears  a  small  square  table  about  eight 
inches  high,  upon  which  are  placed  fresh  cups  and 
chopsticks  (hashi),  the  latter  being  cut  from  white 
wood,  the  two  sticks  still  joined  at  the  end,  so  that 
you  may  know  they  are  fresh  and  unused.  You 
separate  them  as  a  hungry  man  takes  up  his  knife 
and  fork,  and  are  then  ready  for  the  "  honourable 
tray  "  of  red  or  black  lacquer,  which  is  slid  within 
your  reach  by  the  kneeling  and  bowing  musume. 
On  each  of  our  trays  was  a  little  bowl  of  soup  with 
shreds  of  vegetables,  a  saucer  of  pickled  celery  and 
radish — tsukemono — a  minute  slab  of  boiled  trout, 
another  saucer  holding  shreds  of  cold  chicken,  and  a 
wooden  bowl  with  a  rather  doubtful  composition  of 
some  sort  of  whey  and  white  of  egg.  Between  the 
trays  a  large  wooden  tub  of  hot  boiled  rice,  admir- 
ably dressed,  was  set,  with  a  fresh  pot  of  tea.  A 
plate  of  cakes — kashi — also  appeared,  and  when  we 
had  asked  for  and  obtained  salt  and  bread — articles 
apparently  not  usually  furnished — there  was  quite 
enough  to  eat,  and  of  no  bad  quality.  The  little 
glossy-haired  musume  kneels  all  the  time  before 
the  guest,  softly  murmuring  as  she  re-fills  your 
plate  or  cup,   "  Mo   suhoshi   nasal " — "  Condescend 


RURAL  JAP  AX.  i9i 

to  take  a  little  more  ! " — and  it  is  part  of  the  re- 
fined politeness  of  this  nation  that  they  call  hot 
water,  tea,  and  soup,  by  complimentary  terms,  as 
"  0  yu,"  "  The  honourable  hot-water  ; "  "  0  chn," 
"The  honourable  tea;"  "  0  tsuyu,"  "The  honour- 
able refreshing  dew — of  soup."  The  hot  white  rice, 
decorously  poked  into  the  mouth  with  the  chop- 
sticks from  the  edge  of  the  laquered  basin,  is  the 
real  mainstay  of  the  meal,  which,  being  removed, 
the  tobacco-box  and  small  bamboo  pipes  succeed. 

By-and-by  beds  are  prepared  by  drawing  from  a 
hidden  cupboard  many  quilted  mats  and  a  little 
bolster  about  the  size  of  a  Bologna  sausage,  stuffed 
with  rice-blades.  An  andon,  or  paper  lamp,  is  then 
put  in  a  corner  of  the  room,  the  charcoal  brazier 
is  replenished,  and  the  household,  generally,  again 
touch  the  soft  clean  mats  with  their  foreheads, 
murmuring  "0  yasumi  nasai"  ("Condescend  to 
take  honourable  repose").  The  sliding  shoji  are 
pushed  back,  you  creep  between  the  padded  quilts 
on  the  floor,  and  before  sinking  to  slumber  observe 
in  the  dim  light  the  simplicity  of  your  apartment. 
It  contains  one  Kakemono,  or  "  hanging  picture," 
in  Indian  ink,  one  pot  of  chrysanthemums,  an  in- 
scribed tablet  in  Japanese  bearing  the  name  of  a 
god,  or  a  river,  or  mountain,  and  a  tiny  looking- 
glass  on  a  dressing-table  about  as  large  as  a  cigar- 
box.  Now  you  will  hear  the  shrill  notes  from  the 
street  below  of  the  pipe  blown  by  the  annua,  the 
shampooer ;  the  light  musical  laughter  of  the 
hi u.wmes  downstairs,  washing  up;  the  tinkling 
strings  of  the  samisen   played    in    one    little   room, 


1 92  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

the  monotones  of  a  Buddhist  reading  his  sacred 
books  in  another,  the  barking  of  the  village  dogs, 
the  rattle  of  a  late  jinrikisha,  the  splash  of  some 
tardy  traveller  boiling  himself  by  way  of  refresh- 
ment in  the  very  hot  furo-dd  of  the  basement, 
the  noise  of  numerous  paper  shutters  closing  in 
your  own  and  adjoining  abodes,  and  the  stroke 
of  the  watchman's  staff  as  he  makes  his  rounds. 
Lulled  more  or  less  by  these  sounds,  and  with  a 
strange,  indescribable  odour  about  you  of  clean 
matting,  soy,  and  salted  jasmine,  you  sink  to  sleep, 
to  dream,  perhaps,  amid  the  transparent  walls  of  the 
chamber,  that  you  are  a  new  hat  in  a  bandbox,  or 
an  ivory  carving  wrapped  up  in  tissue  paper. 

After  a  breakfast  more  substantial  than  the  airy 
appetites  of  the  Japanese  would  demand,  we  depart 
amid  a  shower  of  sayonaras  and  gentle  good  wishes 
for  a  prosperous  journey,  to  Nikko.  The  distance  by 
road  is  twenty-five  miles,  which  we  are  to  accomplish 
in  four  jinrikishas,  one  of  these  ever-amusing  vehicles 
containing  our  guide  and  another  our  baggage.  We 
have  two  men  to  each  jinrikisha,  one  in  the  shafts, 
the  other  pushing  behind  or  pulling  with  a  cord  ; 
and,  small  though  they  be,  and  hilly  albeit  the  road, 
they  will  run  the  twenty-five  miles  quite  easily  in 
four  hours.  The  journey  gives  a  good  insight  into 
Japanese  rural  life,  since  the  way  passes  through 
many  villages,  and  a  fairly  populous  country.  The 
road  for  four-fifths  of  its  length  is  bordered  on  either 
side  by  stately  trees,  principally  cryptomeria,  some  of 
which  attain  an  extraordinary  size,  and  for  leagues 
together  furnish    an  avenue  of  the  utmost   beauty 


RURAL  JAPAN.  193 

and  magnificence.  Hundreds  among  these  trees 
have  more  than  five  feet  diameter  at  a  man's  height, 
and  lift  their  dark  green  crowns  more  than  a  hundred 
feet  high.  Every  now  and  then  a  spot  is  reached 
where  lightning,  or  the  tail  of  a  typhoon,  has  brought 
down  one  of  these  forest  giants,  hollowed  to  the  core, 
and  it  either  lies  from  bank  to  bank  like  a  massive 
bridge,  or  has  been  partly  consumed  by  fire  and 
sawn  in  fragments,  so  that  the  thoroughfare  can  be 
cleared.  In  and  about  the  villages  a  primitive  but 
very  practical  agriculture  is  being  carried  on.  The 
men  are  reaping  rice,  knee-deep  in  its  wet  bed ;  the 
women,  old  and  young,  are  threshing  out  the  rice- 
bundles  with  curious  revolving  flails,  or  beating- 
bunches  of  millet  and  other  grains  on  the  top  of 
a  web,  which  lets  the  seed  fall  through,  and  thus 
combines  threshing  and  winnowing.  Lightly  built 
carts,  drawn  by  ponies,  led  by  a  nose-string,  convey 
rice  straw,  shingles,  petroleum  for  the  household 
lamps,  and  vegetables  ;  but  much  of  the  traffic  is 
done  with  pack  animals.  Everywhere  may  be  seen 
the  bright,  placid  life,  the  easy  manners,  the  quiet 
contentment  with  the  day,  its  duties  and  its  pleasures, 
and  light  yet  sincere  piety,  the  kindness  to  children, 
strangers,  and  animals,  the  friendliness  and  tem- 
perance, and  the  indifference  to  the  future,  which 
mark  a  Buddhistic  people. 

At  Matsumoto,  and  again  at  Imaichi,  our  two- 
legged  steeds  pulled  up  briskly  at  a  roadside  tea- 
house, where  we  are  received  witli  the  sweet 
invariable  politeness  of  this  people,  and  sip  little 
cups  of  pale  tea,  and  munch  parti-coloured   biscuits 


i94  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

under  the  shade  of  waving  bamboos,  or  in  a  garden 
of  the  usual  fantastic  design.  The  Japanese  love 
of  flowers  is  as  genuine  as  it  is  refined.  At 
Imaichi  a  small  boy  brings  us  out  a  pot  of  chrys- 
anthemums and  places  it  beside  us,  as  if  it  were 
in  the  nature  of  things  that  our  rest  would  be 
made  better  and  happier  by  the  purple  and  amber 
blossoms.  The  little  ones  in  the  street  shout  out 
"  Ohayo ! "  in  cheerful  salutation,  and  the  older 
people  bow  gracefully.  As  for  our  human  horses, 
they  seem  insensible  to  fatigue,  and  trot  the  last 
five  miles  into  Nikko  as  freshly  as  at  first.  Starting 
so  early  in  the  morning  from  Utsunomiya,  we  have 
arrived  in  time  for  lunch  at  the  hotel,  and  for  a 
good  walk  into  the  heart  of  the  mountains  as  far  as 
Nanataki,  the  "  Seven  Cascades."  All  around  the 
little  town,  which  deals  principally  in  skins  of  wild 
animals  and  articles  turned  from  wood,  are  lofty 
hills  closed  in  thick  timber  and  full  of  lakes  and 
cataracts,  and  the  air  is  pure  and  invigorating, 
Nikko  being  2000  feet  above  sea-level. 

But  what  brings  native  and  foreign  people  to 
Nikko  is  not  the  grand  mountain  scenery  surround- 
ing it,  nor  its  superb  avenues  of  firs,  nor  any 
attraction  the  little  town  can  offer,  but  the  splendid 
temples  and  the  royal  tombs,  which  make  it  a 
place  of  pilgrimage  and  one  of  the  spots  dearest  to 
Japanese  piety  and  patriotism.  The  people  have  a 
proverb,  "  He  who  has  not  seen  Nikko  knows  not 
the  meaning  of  the  word  Kikko  "  (beautiful).  You 
find  in  Japan  everywhere  apparently  two  religions, 
Shinto  and  Buddhism,  but  the  two  intermix  almost 


RURAL  JAP  AX.  i95 

universally  as  much  in  belief  as  in  locality.  I 
gather  that  every  Japanese  baby  is  placed  at  its 
birth  under  the  care  of  some  Shinto  deity,  but  lives 
and  dies  in  some  Buddhist  sect.  Shinto  is  the 
religion,  so  far  as  it  is  one  at  all,  of  the  Court  and 
the  State,  but  it  exacts  few  or  no  observances,  and 
the  moral  guidance  of  the  nation  is  practically  com- 
mitted— so  far  as  I  can  ascertain — to  imperfect 
forms  of  Buddhism.  Shinto,  meaning  "  Way  of  the 
( rods,"  to  distinguish  it  from  Butsu-do,  the  "  Way  of 
Buddha,"  was,  it  seems,  ancestor-worship  first,  and 
afterwards  nature-worship.  And  this  has  affected 
Japanese  Buddishm,  for  in  most  Japanese  houses, 
together  with  the  Shinto  shrine,  there  is  a  Buddhist 
picture,  and  tablets  inscribed  to  the  memory  of  dead 
members  of  the  family,  who  are  prayed  to  and  have 
the  advantage  of  periodical  offerings  and  burnt  per- 
fume sticks.  There  are  Shinto  priests  who  wear  a 
peculiar  gown  while  officiating  in  the  temple,  and  a 
black  cap  with  a  white  fillet,  and  you  may  generally 
know  a  Shinto  temple  by  the  bundle  of  white  paper 
or  calico  hanging  in  front  of  its  shrine,  which  has, 
perhaps,  a  metal  mirror  over  above  it.  Inside  the 
sanctum  an  emblem  of  divinity  is  preserved,  wrapped 
in  a  box,  which  may  be  a  sword,  a  stone,  or  a  shoe, 
but  which  even  the  chief  priest  scarcely  ever  sees. 
The  worshipper  claps  his  hands  before  this,  bows 
his  head,  and  throws  a  coin  or  two  on  the  altar-mat, 
but  utters  no  audible  prayer.  Pure  Shintoism  does 
not  admit  of  any  external  decoration  or  images. 
The  wood  of  the  temple,  which  imitates  the  ancient 
Japanese   hut,  should    be    unpainted,  and    the    roof 


196  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

merely  thatched.  But  the  advent  of  Buddhism,  which 
came  in  from  Corea  and  China  about  600  a.d., 
brought  with  it  religious  and  secular  art,  which 
Shintoism  partly  adopted ;  and  this  caused  the 
Shoguns,  or  secular  rulers,  to  oscillate  between  one 
cult  and  the  other,  so  that  at  Nikko — as  well  as  in 
Shiba,  the  Royal  Mausoleum  of  Tokio — one  finds 
Buddhist  and  Shinto  fanes  within  the  same  en- 
closure, and  the  latter  as  brilliantly  adorned — at  any 
rate,  inside — as  the  splendid  Buddhist  sanctuaries 
near  at  hand.  There  are  nine  times  as  many 
Buddhist  temples  in  Tokio  as  Shinto,  and  Mr. 
Satow,  C.M.G.,  a  very  high  authority,  writes  that 
"  Buddhism,  during  the  last  ten  years,  has  been 
steadily  regaining  power  and  position ;  while  the 
Shinto  religion,  for  the  protection  of  which  a 
Government  Department,  ranking  with  the  Council 
of  State,  was  thought  necessary  at  the  revolution, 
has  relapsed  into  its  former  insignificance.  It  is 
still  in  a  certain  sense  a  national  religion,  since  its 
temples  are  maintained  "out  of  the  imperial  and 
local  revenues,  and  the  attendance  of  the  principal 
officials  is  required  by  Court  etiquette  at  certain 
annual  festivals  celebrated  at  the  Palace.  But  it 
has  no  exclusive  hold  over  any  section  of  the  people, 
who  adhere  to  it  just  in  the  same  degree,  and  no 
more,  as  has  been  their  practice  during  the  last 
thousand  years." 

Shiba — meaning  "  the  grass-lawn  " — in  the  capital, 
is  a  wonderful  group  of  mortuary  chapels  and 
temples  gathered  round  the  tombs  of  six  of  the 
Shoguns,    with    those    of  their   wives    and   fathers. 


RURAL  JAPAN.  197 

It  is  a  maze  of  strange  Chinese-looking  edifices, 
burning  in  the  noonday  light  with  gold,  bright- 
coloured  carvings,  fantastic  arabesques,  sculptured 
eaves,  painted  red,  and  sweeping  black  root's;  each 
temple  planted  in  a  court,  surrounded  by  stone 
railings,  and  a  great  number  of  votive  lanterns, 
carved  out  of  stone,  together  with  objects  in  bronze, 
ornamental  belfries,  sacred  wells,  and  picturesque 
gateways.  All  these  are  environed  by  dense  groves 
of  tall,  dark  fir  trees,  and  on  almost  every  portion 
of  them  is  to  be  seen  the  triple  Asarum  leaf,  the 
crest  of  the  great  Toku-gawa  family  of  Shoguns, 
who  were  Buddhists.  But,  since  nearly  all  the 
features  of  Shiba  are  reproduced  with  greater  splen- 
dour at  Nikko — both  being  practically  indescribable 
without  pictures — a  brief  mention  of  the  wonderful 
shrines  of  the  latter  must  do  duty  for  both. 

A  range  of  imposing  mountains  rises  round 
Nikko,  called  the  "  Hills  of  the  Sun's  Brightness," 
and  in  a  hollow  of  one  of  its  lower  glens  stand  the 
picturesque  and  curious  structures  which  make  the 
little  town  famous.  They  have  grown  up  chiefly 
to  mark  the  last  resting-places  of  a  Buddhist  saint 
named  Shodo  Shonin  and  of  two  famous  royal 
Shoguns,  lye  Yasu  and  lye  Mitsu.  At  the  top 
of  the  single  street  of  Nikko  you  turn,  by  an 
ancient  bridge  painted  red,  and  pass  through  a 
grove  of  cryptomerias  to  the  gate  of  the  Su mini fsti- 
((0,  or  "  Hall  of  Three  Buddhas."  You  will  enter 
that  presently,  and  see  within  it  the  colossal  figures, 
heavily  gilded,  and  the  familiar  decorations  of  a 
sumptuous  Buddhist  shrine;   but    you   must    fust   go 


198  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

on  to  a  tall  granite  torii  or  gateway,  where,  hard 
by  a  five-storied  pagoda,  painted  in  red  and  green, 
a  Shinto  priest  gives  you  the  paper  of  admission, 
which  he  stamps  with  a  vermilion  seal.  Armed 
with  this,  you  enter  the  "  porch  of  the  two  kings," 
'and  find  yourself  in  a  region  of  barbaric  grandeur, 
where  edifice  after  edifice  grotesquely  glorified,  and 
tomb  after  tomb  superbly  but  sombrely  adorned, 
at  first  fascinate  and  then  bewilder  the  attention. 
It  is  a  region  of  fantastic  architecture,  gigantic 
gateways  glowing  with  carved  work,  sometimes  ex- 
quisitely beautiful  or  sometimes  singularly  hideous ; 
of  paved  courts,  rich  with  wonderful  bronzes,  and 
ranges  of  sculptured  votive  lanterns ;  of  wide  stair- 
ways of  masonry  leading  to  black-lacquered  plat- 
forms, on  which  magnificent  shrines  stand  with 
golden  walls  and  pillars,  and  roof  trees  and  eaves 
blazing  with  red  and  green  and  blue,  are  cut  into 
wonderful  volutes  and  gargoyles.  Gilding  and 
carving,  lacquer  and  enamels,  the  richest  chasing 
and  the  rarest  sculpture,  with  blocks  of  stone 
massive  enough  for  the  Titans,  and  joinery  deli- 
cate ,  as  fairy  work,  unite  in  these  extraordinary 
fanes. 

If  you  studied  every  detail  of  wonder,  it  is  not 
a  day  but  a  month  which  would  be  necessary,  and 
they  would  look  yet  more  imposingly  splendid  but 
for  a  casing  of  plain  wood  which  covers  their  side- 
walls.  In  one  court;  rises  a  great  tree  a  hundred 
feet  high,  which  Iye-Yasu  was  wont  to  carry  about 
in  his  palanquin  in  a  flower-vase.  A  holy  cistern 
next  presents  itself,  where  the  water  runs  over  the 


RURAL  JAPAN.  1 99 

granite  so  equally  that  it  seems  a  solid  block  of  the 
element ;  a  bronze  lamp  from  the  King  of  Loo-choo 
also  claims  attention,  and  a  bell  from  the  King  of 
Corea.  Another  stone  staircase  is  ascended,  and 
you  are  amongst  tigers,  tapirs,  twisted  dragons, 
and  gilded  demons,  so  lifelike  as  almost  to  alarm. 
And  then  gate  succeeds  to  gate,  court  to  court, 
cloister  to  cloister,  and  stairway  to  stairway,  in 
such  lavish  confusion  that  it  is  a  welcome  repose 
to  abstract  the  mind  from  the  bewildering  and 
heathenish  grandeur  by  slipping  off  the  shoes  and 
entering  one  of  the  temples.  The  folding  doors  are 
rich  with  lotus  and  peony  in  gold  relief.  Beyond 
the  black  threshold  stretch  soft  white  mattings, 
leading  through  an  ante-chamber,  under  a  ceiling 
diapered  witli  wonderful  colour  and  carving,  to  an 
altar  glittering  with  gold  and  shining  red-and-black 
lacquer.  The  panels  of  what  might  be  called  the 
nave,  as  well  as  the  chancel  to  which  it  brings  us, 
are  embellished  with  marvellous  figures  in  sculp- 
tured wood  and  beaten  gold ;  and  gold  asaruin 
leaves,  the  crest  of  the  great  family  whose  founders 
rest  here,  repeat  themselves  in  every  spot.  In  tin 
oratory,  if  it  be  Shinto,  there  hang  Go/ici,  or 
charms  in  gold  paper,  witli  a  circular  mirror  of 
metal,  and  you  see  the  rural  pilgrims  prostrate 
themselves  here,  wrap  a  coin  or  two  in  white  paper, 
reverently  deposit  the  gifts  and  rise  and  depart  with- 
out a  word.  If  it  is.  Buddhist,  the  decorations  will 
be  still  more  dazzling,  and  the  treasures  of  the 
oratory,  more  numerous  and  elaborate,  while  scrolls 
of  "the  Law"  will    be  laid  for  reading  on  low  stools. 


200  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

Both  and  all  these  buildings  are  chapels  to  the 
tombs  of  the  saint  and  of  the  great  Shogun. 
Weary  of  the  overwhelming  but  often  rude  and 
grotesque  splendour,  you  quit  the  soft-matted, 
silent,  shining  temple  and  the  motionless  priests, 
and  pass  up  moss-grown  ancient  stone  stairways 
and  along  galleries  of  masonry  to  the  bell-shaped 
tombs,  surrounded  by  balustrades  of  stone,  where 
the  old  secular  Kings  of  Japan  sleep.  In  front  of 
them  stand  great  storks  in  bronze,  and  huge  incense 
burners  in  the  same  material.  All  round  the  tombs, 
enclosing  the  entire  range  of  buildings,  groves  of 
enormous  trees  cast  their  black-green  shadow.  The 
mountain  glen  seems  to  embrace  the  shrines  and 
tombs  alike,  and  to  shut  them  from  the  glare  of 
day,  with  gaunt  rocks  and  impenetrable  foliage. 
There  is  one  spot  near  the  gate  of  the  mausoleum 
of  Iye-Mitsu  where  you  pass  between  the  God  of 
Wind,  painted  green  and  gold,  and  the  God  of 
Thunder,  all  blazing  crimson,  and  reaching  the 
"  Yaksha  Gate,"  look  out  of  it  upon  the  wall  of 
dark-sn-een  verdure  and  the  wilderness  of  curving 
roofs,  gilded  ridge-poles,  brilliant  doorways,  and 
lacquer  alight  with  gold.  Here  the  weird  and 
strange  attractions  of  the  scene  seem  to  be  concen- 
trated in  all  that  nature  can  lend  of  solemnity  to  all 
that  superstition  can  devise  of  blended  terror  and 
beauty.  For  there  is  nothing  elevating,  reposeful, 
or  edifying  here.  The  Shinto  has  taken  up  with 
splendid  but  painful  images  of  ugliness  and  awe, 
the  Buddhism  is  degenerate  and  decorative,  and  the 
mountains  around,  which    have  elsewhere   so  many 


RURAL  JAPAN.  201 

features  of  gracious  beauty,  huddle  their  crags 
together  round  the  place,  and  lend  it  nothing  but 
what  it  seems  to  ask — profound  shadow,  sepulchral 
gloom,  and  an  unbroken  silence. 

Half  dazzled,  half  oppressed  with  pacing  through 
a  dozen  glittering  shrines  and  chapels,  resplendent 
hondens  and  haidens,  superb  oratories  and  gloomy 
tomb-enclosures,  where  gorgeous  details  overlaid 
and  overwhelmed  each  other,  and  the  mind  became 
obscured  as  is  the  eye  when  it  gazes  too  long  upon 
extreme  brilliancy,  we  resumed  our  shoes,  and, 
passing  towards  the  beautiful  gate,  Yomei  Man, 
saw  the  one  graceful  and  charming  sight  of  the 
fantastic  labyrinth.  Close  by  a  side  building  where 
country  people  upon  their  knees  were  buying  written 
charms  to  take  home  for  good  luck  or  recovery  from 
illness,  we  came  upon  a  pretty  little  open  chapel 
marked  by  the  Shinto  gold  paper  shreds  and  mirror. 
On  its  floor  of  spotless  matting  was  a  seated  figure, 
which  might  have  been  taken  at  first  for  the  chief 
triumph  of  the  Shogun  carvers'  work,  so  motionless 
was  it ;  but  in  another  moment  you  perceived  this 
was  only  a  Ja])anese  girl  clothed  in  white,  and 
seated  in  the  shrine.  Our  guide  threw  a  coin  into 
the  box  in  front  of  her.  Upon  this  she  rose,  ami 
with  extremely  becoming  movements,  commenced 
the  kagura,  or  temple  dance,  beating  slow  time  to 
her  own  steps  with  the  bunch  of  silver  bells  held  in 
her  right  hand,  and  waving  her  fan  to  the  same 
cadence  with  her  left,  while  performing  what  was  a 
most  rhythmical,  solemn,  and  striking  " p<i*  sail.'"' 
Her  white    headdress,   almost  Abyssinian    in    style. 


202  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

her  large  white  sleeves  and  scarlet  " obi"  made  her 
very  pictorial,  and  she  was,  besides  this,  so  entirely 
comely,  gentle,  and  demure,  that  when  she  bowed 
her  head,  closed  her  fan,  and  sank  back  again  into 
dreamy  silence,  I  asked  my  interpreter  what  gift 
he  had  made  for  so  delightful  a  little  ceremony, 
and  what  would  be  its  efficacy  theologically.  He 
answered  that  the  dance  was  supposed  to  "  drive 
away  devils  "  for  those  who  paid ;  and  that  his  offer- 
ing, on  our  behalf,  had  been  four  sen,  a  sum  equal  to 
about  twopence.  Shocked  at  this  unworthy  tribute 
— for  certainly  any  demons  of  taste  would  have 
been  attracted  rather  than  repelled  by  so  much  grace 
and  gentleness — I  offered  the  taciturn  danseuse  a 
more  adequate  present  on  my  own  account,  where- 
upon she  rose  again  silently  and  demurely  as  before, 
and  repeated  the  strange  undulating  movements, 
the  deftly-measured  steps,  the  fan-waving,  and  bell- 
ringing  of  the  mystic  dance.  Her  dark  eyes,  fair, 
quiet  face,  and  pious  gravity  were  perhaps  the  best 
and  nicest  things  we  saw  in  the  renowned  temple 
grounds  at  Nikko ;  and  I,  at  least,  shall  remember 
the  slow,  musical  beat  of  her  silver  bells,  and  the 
perfect  harmony  between  her  little  feet  and  her 
fluttering  fan  longer  than  the  gold  and  red  and 
green  devils  whom  it  was  her  befitting  duty  to 
exorcise.  Even  had  those  devils  been  "  blue,"  O 
Take  San — "  the  Hon.  Miss  Bamboo  " — might  have 
danced  them  all  away  with  her  debonnair  simplicity 
and  youthful  grace. 

Nikko,  Nov.  18,  1889. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

TEMPLES    AND    SHRINES. 

Fuji-sax  is  hidden  this  morning  in  driving  clouds, 
which  deluge  the  roofs  of  Tokio  with  rain  ;  and 
the  garden  party  in  the  Palace  grounds,  fixed  for 
this  afternoon,  cannot,  I  fear,  come  oft'.  Our  tickets 
of  admission  to  the  imperial  presence,  spendidly 
emblazoned  with  the  royal  chrysanthemum,  and 
printed  in  golden  Japanese  characters,  have  just 
been  delivered ;  but  the  wind  is  raging  like  a  com- 
mencing typhoon,  and  the  Japanese  abroad  are, 
for  the  most  part,  wrapped  in  straw  coats,  mino, 
and  pent-house  hats,  which  give  them  the  appear- 
ance of  small  hayricks  moving  about.  Everybody 
exclaims,  "Ante/  taksan  warui/"  ("Rain,  very 
bad!"),  and  I  shall  endeavour  to  utilise  our  forced 
leisure  by  describing  two  or  three  excursions  made 
in  the  picturesque  country  round  about  Xikko. 
Returning  from  that  long  journey  into  the  interior, 
and  from  wandering  about  the  hills  and  valleys  of 
the  Nikko-zan,  the  strongest  impression  left  is  of 
the  invariable  gentleness  and  courtesy  of  this  people. 
With  the  restless  curiosity  of  our  kind,  we  have 
gone  into  temples,  cemeteries,  shrines,  tea-houses, 
native    hotels,    private    residences,    farmyards,    rice- 


2o4  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

mills,  and  bathing-places — encountering  nowhere 
the  smallest  deviation  from  the  soft  and  pleasant 
manners  already  noted.  It  would  be  absurd  to 
think  that  the  foreign  element  can  be  particularly 
welcome  in  a  land  so  intensely  patriotic  and  pecu- 
liar, where  the  best  informed  stranger  constantly 
violates  the  proprieties  of  Japanese  speech  and 
customs,  and  where  the  most  considerate  must  be 
often  rather  a  nuisance  than  otherwise.  But — 
whether  it  be  due  to  the  humanising  influence  of 
Buddhism,  or  to  the  happy  mixture  in  Japanese 
veins  of  the  good-humored  Mongolian  blood  with 
the  subtle  and  graceful  Malay  nature — on  all  sides 
and  in  all  places  the  well-conducted  traveller  in 
Japan  meets  with  the  same  douceur  inalterable 
of  behaviour. 

As  you  pass  through  the  villages  lining  the  high 
roads,  the  little  ones,  waddling  about  on  wooden 
pattens,  with  their  smaller  brothers  and  sisters 
strapped  upon  their  backs,  wag  their  shaven  heads 
and  bend  low — shaking  the  baby  altogether  out 
of  position — uttering  cheerful  and  friendly  Ohayos  ! 
The  very  baby,  if  he  can  say  anything  at  all,  blinks 
with  his  tiny  almond  eyes,  and  nods  his  small 
poll,  and  babbles  "  Hayo  !  Hayo  !  "  to  the  passing 
wayfarer.  At  the  tea-houses,  when  all  is  paid,  and 
there  is  nothing  more  to  expect,  the  girls  will  offer 
the  departing  guest  a  bunch  of  chrysanthemums,  or 
a  red  or  white  camellia,  and  to  whatever  expressions 
of  thanks  you  employ  the  pretty  answer  is,  "  What 
have  I  done  ?  "  ("  Do  itashimashita  ?  ")  If  you  ask 
the  way,  your  guide  for  the  time  being  will  almost 


TEMPLES  AND   SHRINES.  205 

rather  let  you  take  the  wrong  turning  in  a  forest 
path  than  walk  before  you.  You  are  led  into 
awful  mistakes  and  mutual  misapprehensions  by 
the  Japanese  habit  of  never  contradicting.  They 
answer  "  Yes"  to  almost  everything,  and  the  nni.su- 
//i<:s  in  particular  softly  murmur  "  HI  !  HI  !  Hi  !  " 
all  the  time  you  are  giving  orders  or  asking 
questions.  If  they  have  anything  to  say  longer 
than  a  word  or  two  off  goes  the  hat,  and  the  hands 
are  laid  on  the  bended  knees  by  the  men,  while 
the  women  slide  down  upon  their  heels,  and 
smooth  their  kimono  over  their  laps,  and  so  con- 
tinue the  "  august  communication."  Faces  plain 
and  sad  and  toil-worn  you  "may  meet,  and  faces 
inquisitive,  indifferent,  or  unintelligent.  But  these 
are  rare  even  amongst  the  males,  while  among 
the  females  the  young  have  almost  always  brig! it 
and  kindly  looks,  and  the  old  a  sweet  serenity 
of  expression,  as  if  they  were  sure,  as  they  are, 
of  respect  and  affection.  Of  course,  I  am  merely 
an  ignorant  newcomer  here,  and  all  this  may  be 
— as  some  say — the  lacquer  laid  over  insincere 
natures.  Yet  it  presents  no  such  aspect  to  my 
vyt^;  and  if  the  merry  friendliness  and  delightful 
ways  of  the  knot  of  children  and  mothers  who 
gathered  around  us  at  Utsunomiya  yesterday  to 
laugh  at  our  broken  Japanese,  and  to  divide  some 
sugar  and  cakes,  was  not  sincere,  it  was  the 
prettiest  imitation  of  sincerity.  The  light,  per- 
petual laughter  of  the  Japanese  especially  charms. 
"With  the  women  and  children  it  is  the  softest, 
most   musical   "chortle"  that   could    be   heard:  and 


2o6  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

even  the  jinrikisha  men  chuckle  perpetually  as 
they  dash  you  along  the  narrow  roads,  and  seem 
full  of  joyous  badinage  one  with  the  other  or  with 
the  passers-by. 

Dazzled  with  the  barbaric  splendour  of  the  Nikko 
Temples,  Tosho-Gu,  Diu-yu-in,  Sambutsu-do,  Futa- 
ara,  and  the  rest,  we  found  it  pleasant  to  wander  off 
into  some  of  the  mountain  glens  which  surround  the 
town  and  the  famous  shrines.  One  such  excursion 
on  foot  was  to  Shichi-taki  ("  The  Seven  Cascades  "). 
The  path  led  through  a  village,  where  daikon  (great 
white  radishes)  were  drying  in  the  sun.  Water- 
wheels  were  working  the  rice-pestles  ;  women  were 
washing  household  utensils  in  the  mountain-brooks  ; 
and  pack-horses  with  straw  shoes  were  bringing 
wood  from  the  hills  to  a  sort  of  moor  covered  with 
long  dry  feathery  grass  and  thickets  of  occasionally 
unfamiliar  aspect.  The  northern  and  southern 
floras  meet  in  this  favoured  land.  Oaks,  laurels, 
and  conifers  keep  the  fair  empire  green  throughout 
the  dry  and  flowerless  winter ;  elms,  beech,  walnut, 
chestnut,  and  birch  mingle  with  the  ever-graceful 
bamboo,  dwarf  palms,  and  cycads.  Wild  plum  and 
cherry  trees  make  the  country  a  perfect  Japanese 
kakemono  in  spring ;  and  these  well-known  trees 
have  for  neighbours  hydrangeas,  camellias,  azaleas, 
magnolias,  the  camphor  laurel,  and  the  tea  bush. 
Even  a  careless  botanist  might  find,  in  lowlands 
or  highlands  near  the  Treaty  ports,  such  old  friends 
as  shepherd's  purse,  dandelion,  monkshood,  poppy, 
celandine,  violet,  mallow,  chickweed,  plantago, 
mistletoe,    golden    rod,    burweed,    burdock,    thistle, 


TEMPLES  AND   SJ I  REXES.  207 

red  convolvulus,  dock,  and  herb  Robert ;  while  if  he 
knew  a  little  of  sub-tropical  vegetation  he  would 
also  recognise  the  glossy  saw-edged  tea-leaf,  the 
lotus  (ham),  the  loquat,  yam,  cotton,  vegetable  wax, 
and  varnish  plant,  tobacco,  rice,  sesamum,  &c.  From 
the  coppices  and  dried-up  grasses,  as  we  pass,  spring 
many  pheasants  ;  a  lighter-coloured  and  smaller  bird 
than  that  familiar  at  home,  but  very  pretty  as  its 
purple  and  green  plumage  glitters  in  the  sunlight. 
We  see  the  brimstone,  the  white  admiral,  and 
tortoiseshell  butterflies,  and  others  which  are  new  ; 
and  crows,  tits,  shrikes,  wagtails,  owls,  jays,  with  a 
few  finches  brighter  in  colour  than  our  own.  The 
prettiest  of  Japanese  small  birds  is  a  fly-catcher, 
coloured  azure  blue  and  emerald  green,  but  in 
autumn  it  loses  the  long  tail  feathers.  Wild  geese 
fly  overhead  in  a  long  wedge,  and  there  are  egrets 
in  a  swamp,  with  snipe,  and  what  looks  like  an  ibis, 
with  pink  legs  and  white  feathers.  The  woodcock 
— sometimes  showing  cream-coloured  plumage — is 
common  in  the  hollows  where  streams  run. 

Along  our  path,  from  time  to  time,  rises  a  little 
Shinto  shrine,  distinguishable  by  its  unpainted  torii 
or  "  bird-perch,"  which  makes  the  gate,  and  by  the 
strips  of  zig-zag  paper  and  rag  suspended  before 
the  inner  recess.  More  frequently  it  is  a  Buddhist 
"  templette,"  with  a  whole  posse  of  Buddhas  in 
stone  grouped  around — some  with  head  on  hand, 
reposing  in  the  calm  of  Nirvana,  some  erect  witli 
hand  raised  in  benediction,  some  seated  with  closed 
eyes,  placid  countenance,  and  folded  knees.  Near 
these  is  often  a  little  cemetery,  full  of  wooden   and 


2o8  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

stone  tablets  bearing  the  name  of  the  deceased,  and 
in  front  of  each  a  flower-vase  of  pottery,  or  a  little 
vessel  containing  sand  in  which  to  put  lighted 
perfume  sticks.  One  such  tablet  recorded — so  our 
interpreter  declared — the  living,  and  the  after-life, 
the  name  and  too  early  demise  of  O-tzubaki-San, 
"  Miss  Camellia."  It  did  seem  such  a  sad  pity  that 
she  could  no  more  enjoy  the  clear  morning  air  and 
soft  mountain  outlines,  and  the  berries  and  flowers 
of  the  road  to  the  waterfall,  that  we  kindled  a  half- 
dozen  of  scent  sticks  and  set  them  up,  burning,  in 
her  little  votive  saucer,  nay,  and  we  even  said, 
heathenishly,  a  "  Sa}^onara,"  as  we  hastened  away 
over  the  Japanese  moorland. 

Upon  its  face  we  meet  many  woodcutters  return- 
ing with  laden  ponies,  their  fore-feet  shod  with 
grass-slippers  tied  on  with  cord.  We  pass  a  vast 
boulder,  hollowed  at  the  top  by  nature  or  art,  where 
the  rain  has  collected,  and  the  wayfaring  country 
folk  pause  here  to  wash  their  hands  before  offering 
a  prayer  to  the  adjacent  shrine,  calling  it  Ame-furo- 
ishi,  the  "  Rain  Bathstone."  At  a  small  and  solitary 
tea-house,  near  the  waterfall,  we  find  an  old  lady  of 
seventy-eight  summers,  all  alone  in  this  wilderness, 
whose  four  children  are  gone  down  to  Nikko.  She 
bustles  about,  after  the  usual  salutations,  and  pre- 
pares tea,  as  well  as  pouring  out  a  tiny  cup  of  sake, 
the  rice-spirit,  which  one  soon  learns  to  appreciate. 
Always,  with  the  tea,  are  provided  little  green  and 
red  biscuits,  and,  if  you  are  seriously  hungry,  the 
tub  of  hot  boiled  rice.  All  around  this  mountain 
tea-house  are  ranged    ancient    figures    of    Buddha, 


TEMPLES  AXD   SHRINES.  209 

upon  which  votaries  have  affixed  scraps  of  paper 
bearing  their  names,  and  sometimes  a  statement  of 
their  wishes.  Yet  the  old  lady  is  no  Buddhist,  hut 
of  the  Shinto  persuasion,  so  closely  do  the  two 
creeds  dwell  together.  Her  cottage,  of  framework 
and  paper,  is  full  of  the  strangest  mixture  of  religious 
tablets,  household  utensils,  and  fruits  and  herbs 
hung  up  to  dry  ;  and  when  we  ask  for  more  fuel 
to  replenish  the  hibachi  she  proudly  explains  that 
she  has  the  right  to  cut  wood  all  over  the  hillside. 
The  cups  in  which  she  serves  the  tea  and  sake  are 
of  the  most  delicate  porcelain  and  of  lovely  form 
and  colour,  and  there  are  many  things  valuable,  to 
Japanese  minds,  in  her  lonely  dwelling.  There  are 
surely  not  many  countries  where  an  old  lady  like 
this  could  live  alone  at  such  a  distance  from  habita- 
tions in  perfect  security.  The  "Seven  Cascades," 
just  beyond  her  tea-house,  is  a  picturesque  cataract 
which  in  England  would  render  a  district  renowned 
— here  it  principally  serves  to  supply  the  stream 
where  our  hostess  washes  her  tubs  and  pipkins. 

Another  charming  walk  of  eight  or  ten  miles  took 
us  to  Vrami,  a  still  finer  waterfall,  the  name  sig- 
nifying "See  behind,"  because  you  can  pass  under 
the  descending  water,  which  shoots  in  a  great 
column  far  out  from  the  lofty  rock.  Araxhi-i/ania 
"  Mountain  of  Typhoons,"  soared  neared  at  hand, 
and  sent  down  the  steam  supplying  the  beautiful 
cascade.  All  along  the  moorland  path,  as.  indeed, 
in  every  road  of  Japan,  the  way  was  marked  la- 
the cast-off  waraji,  the  woven  grass  shoes,  which 
the  people  buy  for  a   penny   a    pair,  and   Ming  aside 


210  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

after  a  few  days',  or  even  hours',  rough  wear.  Every 
wayside  shoj)  supj)lies  them  by  scores,  as  well  as  the 
thicker  and  heavier  articles  made  for  horses ;  and 
when  the  shopkeeper  has  nothing  better  to  do,  he 
weaves  waraji.  Uncramped  by  boots  or  shoes,  the 
Japanese  foot  is  always  shapely  and  free  of  blemish ; 
but  the  cord  of  the  grass  shoe  and  of  the  clog  which 
passes  between  the  great  toe  and  the  other  toes 
spreads  them,  and  causes  a  callosity  in  the  interval. 
Japanese  foot  gear  cannot,  of  course,  be  worn  with 
an  European  stocking. 

Yet  another  little  excursion  conducted  us  on  foot 
along  the  course  of  the  Daiya-Gawa  River — which 
runs  under  the  red  bridge  of  Utsunomiya — to  a  deep 
pool  called  Kamman-ga-fuchi,  the  "  Whirlpool  of 
the  Tortoise."  On  the  road  we  passed  a  long  line 
of  carts,  having  a  red  flag  inscribed  with  Japanese 
characters  fixed  upon  the  load  of  each.  Our  inter- 
preter deciphered  the  letters  as  meaning  "  Exercise 
honourable  precaution,"  and  looking  more  closely 
we  observed  that  the  boxes  were  marked  "  Dynamit." 
The  perilous  commodity  was  passing  to  the  copper- 
mines  under  the  hill  Nan-tai-zan,  to  be  used  in 
blasting  the  rock;  and  there  was  enough  to  produce, 
if  exploded,  something  far  worse  than  the  slight 
earthquake  felt  the  night  before.  We  were  glad 
to  get  the  river  between  ourselves  and  this  uncom- 
fortable convoy,  upon  which  the  Japanese  carters 
were  gaily  riding,  and  smoking  their  little  brass 
pipes.  Between  a  small  temple  and  the  Tortoise 
Rock  a  long  line  of  images  of  Amida — the  Amitaya, 
or  "  Measureless  One  "    of"  Indian   Buddhism — was 


TEMPLES  AXD   SHRINES.  211 

ranged.  "We  counted  126;  there  may  have  been 
more.  Some  were  new,  some  were  old — all  bore 
in  their  .sculptured  features  the  same  traditional 
placidity  of  expression,  the  same  carefully  preserved 
benignity  of  air,  which  the  rudest  artists  of  this  cult 
have  known  how  to  perpetuate  in  representing  the 
Buddha  or  his  incarnations.  Some  charming  verses, 
sent  to  me  by  a  California  lady  named  Annie 
Herbert  Barker,  of  San  Rafael,  seem  to  express 
the  spirit  which  was  visible  in  the  passionless  coun- 
tenances of  all  these  Buddhas  with  such  felicity 
that  it  might  almost  be  thought  this  gifted  writer 
had  herself  viewed  the  rushing  Japanese  river,  the 
''Mountain  of  the  Typhoon,"  all  the  marks  and 
memorials  of  earth's  restless  life,  and  amid  them 
those  records  in  ancient  stone  of  the  unalterable 
tranquility,  the  unshaken  content,  the  immeasurable 
aspirations  of  the  Buddh.     Her  verses  run — 

"To  hear  in  old  word?,  breathing  halm, 
The  secret  of  the  Wordless  Calm, 
The  equipoise  of  chastened  will, 
The  Master's  comfort,  "  Peace,  he  still !  " 

To  search  tear-bordered  lids  between 
Until  each  wandering  soul,  serene, 
Finds  in  Nirvana  of  the  blest 
A  mother's  arms,  a  lover's  breast. 

O  Unseen  Presence !     Constant  Power! 
That  comprehends  our  little  hour: 
Because  Thou  art,  though  unconfessed, 
When  Nature    faints,  we  feel  Thet — Pest  ! 

Thy  Light,  which  is  not  Sun  or  Star, 
But  clear  a-  heavenly  haloes  are, 


212  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Illumes  the  path  our  feet  must  tread, 
Thy  pity  folds  us,  quick  and  dead. 

So,  cradled  in  immensity, 
Troubled  or  still  my  couch  may  be, 
What  time  in  tranced  dusk  I  wait 
The  turning  of  the  Key  of  Fate !" 

The  wayside  avenue  of  Buddhas  showed  nearly 
every  figure  with  prayers  and  wishes  written  on 
slips  of  paper  and  pasted  on  the  breast,  or  little 
stones  marked  and  laid  in  the  lap  of  the  "  Unspeak- 
able." These  are  to  save  small  children,  in  the 
other  world,  from  the  penance  of  piling  up  pebbles 
by  the  bank  of  the  "  Dark  River."  Buddhism  is 
deeply  ingrained — albeit  with  corruptions — in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  this  people.  They  have  the 
Goma  (Sanskrit,  "Homa"),  and  the  Ingwa,  or  doc- 
trines of  Karma  and  Transmigration;  the  priest's 
scarf  in  Kesa  (Sanskrit,  "  Kashaya  ");  and  the  Maye- 
dachi,  the  image  on  the  altar,  together  with  the 
altar  itself,  recalls  with  much  precision  Indian  and 
Singhalese  models.  The  Rim-bo,  "  Wheel  of  the 
Law "  (Chakra  in  Sanskrit),  is  constantly  carved 
and  painted.  As  I  write  these  words  a  deputation 
of  Japanese1  Buddhist  priests  enters  my  room  at 
the  British  Legation  to  invite  me  to  lecture  on  the 
Holy  Places  of  the  Faith  to  the  Tokio  Brethren, 
and  afterwards  to  dine  with  them  more  Japonico. 
They  bring  with  them  a  translation  into  Japanese 
of  "  The  Light  of  Asia,"  and  are  friendly,  courteous, 
and  accomplished   gentlemen. 

Last   night,  after   the  heavy  rains  and  wild  winds 


TEMPLES  AND   SHRINES.  213 

which  rendered   the    Mikado's    garden    festival   im- 
possible, another  and  far  stronger  shuck  of  earth- 
quake shook   this  city.     It  occurred   shortly  before 
midnight,  and    continued    for    about    forty    seconds. 
Lying    in     bed,    it     was    easy    and    interesting    for 
me    to    note   its    phenomena — first,  the    rattling    of 
things   movable    inside   and   outside   the    chamber ; 
then    a   strange    distant    rumbling    noise,    like    the 
passage    of    an    underground    train,    increasing    in 
volume    until    the    strongest    shock    was    felt,    and 
afterwards  dying  away  with   tremors  and  shudders 
of  the  ground ;   lastly,  perfect   stillness,  except    for 
the  crowing   of  disturbed   cocks  and    the  howls  of 
surprised  Tokio    dogs.       It    imparted    a    feeling   of 
pleasure   rather   than   apprehension    to   realise   that 
the  planet  itself  was  also  quick   and  active,  full  of 
secret  developments  and  hidden  evolutions,  shaping 
herself  for  later  destinies  with  these  throes  and  soft 
mysterious  upheavals. 

"  What !  alive— and  so  hold?    O  Earth  !" 

There  are  two  islands  near  the  capital  which  are 
held  to  be  the  very  seismological  focus  of  Japan, 
so  that  earthquakes  are  common  at  Tokio,  and  old 
hands  will  repose  indifferently  between  the  sheets 
and  watch  the  wall  paper  split  upon  the  sides  of 
their  chambers.  This,  however,  is  when  Fuji-San 
is  shaken  to  her  roots.  Last  night  she  did  but 
heave  her  mighty  flanks  a  little,  and  utter  the 
sigh    of  a    sleeping    Mountain    Goddess.      In    18">~> 


2i4  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

(on  November  •  11)  an  earthquake  here  destroyed 
100,000  lives  and  14,000  dwelling  houses,  it  is 
said.  Decidedly  one  would  prefer  these  interesting 
phenomena  on  a  smaller  scale ! 

British  Legation,  Tokio,  Nov.  20,  1889. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

POETRY    AND    PLAYS. 

Yesterday  came  off  the  long-deferred  gathering  in 
the  gardens  of  the  Emperor's  Palace  at  Asaknsa, 
in  Tokio,  to  view  the  royal  chrysanthemums.  But 
the  occasion  was  shorn  of  part,  at  least,  of  the 
dignity  which  had  been  foreshadowed,  since  neither 
his  Imperial  Majesty  nor  the  Empress  appeared. 
In  Japan  one  does  not  inquire  into  the  reasons 
for  Court  vacillations  of  purpose — one  expects  and 
accepts  them ;  and  the  beautiful  pleasure-grounds 
surrounding  the  former  residence  of  the  Mikado 
were  thronged  with  the  fine  flew  of  the  capital. 
The  Palace — built  mainly  in  the  native  style,  with 
sliding  shoji  and  walls  adorned  with  storks,  wild 
ducks,  and  rain-birds — has  been  recently  abandoned 
for  the  new  and  handsome  abode  situated  within 
the  moat  and  ramparts  of  the  "  shiro."  But  the 
park  surrounding  the  Asakusa  House — in  which  the 
present  Emperor  passed  much  of  his  earlier  years 
— is  very  spacious  and  picturesque,  with  hills  and 
dales,  groves  of  great  trees  and  parterres  of  flowers, 
bridges,  tea-kiosks,  and  retreats  embellished  with 
the  dwarfed  vegetation,  and  artificial  miniature 
landscape    work,    the    taste    for    which     has    been 


2i6  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

borrowed  by  Japan  from  China.  Amidst  these 
royal  pleasaunces  it  was  agreeable  enough  to 
wander,  meeting  many  of  the  most  distinguished 
of  Japanese  ministerial  and  official  people.  But 
an  imperial  edict  had  issued  to  the  effect  that 
frock  coats  and  tall  silk  hats  must  be  worn,  and 
the  mode  for  the  Court  ladies  is  still  largely 
European,  so  that  the  spectacle  lost  much  of  its 
native  charm.  Nothing  is  more  becoming  to  the 
bright  complexions,  and  graceful,  petite  figures  of 
Japanese  ladies  than  their  own  charming  kimono 
and  obi;  nothing  less  suitable  than  the  Parisian 
costumes  which  they  do  not  know  how  to  select 
or  to  put  on.  iEsthetically  it  was  absolutely  tragic 
to  meet  a  Minister  of  State  in  chimney-pot  head- 
gear, and  his  charming  consort  in  an  ill-fitting- 
London  robe,  which  they  would  both  eagerly  dis- 
card for  the  dress  of  their  country  at  the  moment 
of  reaching  home.  The  pretty  grey,  and  pink,  and 
purple  kimono  of  the  less  fashionable  belles  attend- 
ing the  display  were  so  many  silent  rebukes  to  the 
deplorable  innovation,  which,  happily,  is  not  gain- 
ing, but  losing  ground,  even  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  Court.  The  chrysanthemums  were  various  in 
colour  and  form,  and  very  magnificent,  as  befitted 
those  cultivated  for  the  Emperor's  own  eye,  in  a 
land  where  the  kiku  is  the  national  emblem.  Little 
Japanese  soldiers,  in  the  German  uniform — which 
has  been  adopted  for  the  Army,  as  the  Navy  has 
taken  up  with  our  own  British  man-of-war  style — 
kept  the  gates  and  grounds  with  much  military 
suavity.     Discipline  can  neither  add  to  nor  diminish 


P OE  TR  } '  A  XD   FLA  \  S.  2  1  7 

the  perfect  politeness  and  self-possession  of  this 
race.  As  our  carriage  drove  through  the  outer 
portal  of  the  palace,  its  fore  off-wheel  caught  the 
jinrikisha  of  an  official,  and  threatened,  lor  the 
moment,  to  flatten  him,  like  one  of  his  own  kaki  - 
motto,  against  the  lacquered  gate.  His  counte- 
nance, however,  did  not  betray  the  slightest  alarm, 
although,  if  the  horses  had  not  been  instantly  con- 
trolled, the  affair  might  have  proved  serious.  To 
our  exclamation,  "  We  beu-  your  honourable  excuse," 
he  replied  with  a  bow,  "  What  slight  thing  is  this ! 
Condescend  not  to  take  honourable  notice." 

Among  the  company  moved  about  very  imposingly 
the  Corean  Ambassador  and  his  suite,  to  whom 
we  had  the  distinction  of  being  presented.  His 
Excellency,  a  grave,  enlightened-looking  diplomat, 
wore  the  most  amazing  head-dress  ever,  perhaps, 
invented,  resembling  the  upper  two  storeys  of  a 
pagoda,  with  a  slab  of  green  jade  upon  its  summit, 
and  broad  cheek-strings  of  amber  beads.  His 
attendants,  similarly,  but  less  splendidly,  arrayed, 
furnished  with  their  grey  gowns  and  Mongol  features 
a  singular  group  among  many  others. 

It  was  by  way  of  Corea  and  Northern  China  that 
Buddhism  and  the  Chinese  characters  came  into 
those  four  greater  islands,  which,  constituting  the 
bulk  of  the  Empire,  take,  with  the  fanciful  Japanese 
artist,  the  form  and  name  of"  Land  of  the  Dragon - 
Fly."  The  Loo-choo  group,  of  course,  has  been 
lately  annexed  to  the  Mikado's  dominions  under  the 
title  of"  Riu-kiu."  Numberless  are  the  legends  and 
fairy  stories  which  the   people  tell  of  those  outlying 


2i8  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

southern  archipelagoes,  to  which  adventurous  sam- 
pans and  ill-equipped  junks  must  ofttimes  have 
been  driven  in  the  old  days,  never — or  hardly  ever 
— to  return.  How  full,  for  instance,  of  ancient 
romance  and  Buddhistic  impress  is  this  story  of 
Urashima!  It  has  been  translated,  like  many  other 
exquisite  things,  from  Japanese  folk-lore  by  Mr. 
Basil  Hall  Chamberlain — one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished of  Anglo-Japanese  scholars,  and  the  author 
of  a  grammer  which  was  my  daily  study  on  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  and  was  so  admirably  compiled  as  to 
prove  more  interesting  than  any  romance.  Says  the 
little  tale,  which  I  abridge — 

Long  ago  there  lived  on  the  coast  of  Japan  a  young  fisher- 
man named  Urashima.  One  day  he  went  out  in  his  boat  to  fish, 
and  caught  a  big  tortoise.  Now,  tortoises  always  live  a  thousand 
years.  So  Urashima  thought  to  himself,  "  A  fish  would  do  for 
my  dinner  just  as  well  as  this  tortoise,  in  fact,  better.  Why 
should  I  prevent  it  from  enjoying  itself  for  another  999  years  ? 
No,  no,  I  won't  be  so  cruel."  And  with  these  words  he  threw 
the  tortoise  back  into  the  sea.  Then  Urashima  went  to  sleep  in 
his  boat,  and  as  he  slept  there  came  up  from  beneath  the  waves  a 
beautiful  girl,  who  entered  the  boat  and  said,  "  I  am  the  daughter 
of  the  Sea-God,  and  I  live  with  my  father  in  the  Dragon  Palace 
beyond  the  waves.  It  was  not  a  tortoise  that  you  caught  just 
now.  It  was  myself.  My  father  the  Sea-God  had  sent  me  to 
see  whether  you  were  good  or  bad.  You  shall  marry  me,  if  you 
like,  and  we  will  live  happily  together  for  a  thousand  years  in 
the  Dragon  Palace  beyond  the  blue  sea."  So  Urashima  took  one 
oar  and  the  Sea-God's  daughter  the  other,  and  they  rowed,  and 
they  came  to  the  Dragon  Palace,  where  the  Sea-God  ruled  as 
King  over  all  the  dragons,  tortoises,  and  fishes.  The  walls  of  the 
palace  were  of  coral,  the  trees  had  emeralds  for  leaves  and  rubies 
for  berries,  the  fishes'  scales  were  of  silver  and  the  dragons'  tails 


P  OE  PR  V  AND   PL  A  )  IS'.  2 1 9 

of  solid  gold.  And  it  all  belonged  to  Urashima ;  so  they  lived 
happily.  But  one  morning  Urashima  said  to  his  wife,  '  I  am 
very  happy  here.  Still  I  want  to  go  home  and  see  my  father  and 
mother  and  brothers  and  sisters."  "I  am  very  much  afraid," 
said  she.  "However,  if  you  will  go,  you  must  take  this  box,  and 
be  very  careful  not  to  open  it.  If  you  open  it  you  will  never  be 
able  to  come  back."  Then,  getting  into  his  boat,  he  rowed  off, 
aud  at  last  landed  on  the  shore  of  his  own  country.  But  every- 
thing seemed  to  have  changed  so  much  in  those  short  years.  Two 
men  chanced  to  pass  along  the  beach,  and  Urashima  said,  "Can 
you  tell  me  Avhere  Urashima's  cottage  is  that  used  to  stand  here?" 
"Urashima?"  said  they;  "  why,  it  was  four  hundred  years  ago 
that  he  was  drowned  out  fishing.  His  parents,  and  his  brothers, 
and  their  great-grandchildren  are  all  dead  long  ago.  His  cottage 
fell  to  pieces  hundreds  of  years  ago."  Then  Urashima  knew 
that  the  Sea-God's  Palace  beyond  the  waves,  with  its  coral  walls 
and  its  ruby  fruits  and  its  dragons  with  tails  of  solid  gold,  must 
be  Fairyland,  and  that  one  day  there  was  as  long  as  a  year  in 
this  world.  So  in  a  great  hurry  to  get  back  he  disobeyed  her 
orders  not  to  open  the  box,  and  out  of  it  came  a  white  cloud 
which  floated  away  over  the  sea.  Suddenly,  too,  his  hair  grew  as 
white  as  snow,  his  face  wrinkled,  his  breath  short,  and  he  fell 
down  dead  on  the  beach. 

Is  it  not  clear  that  Urashima's  adventure  is  the 
echo  of  some  old  sea-story,  told  by  the  island  folk, 
of  Japan  boatmen  blown  off  the  coast  to  far-off 
Corea  or  Loo-choo,  returning  long  afterwards  in 
junk  or  proa,  the  Rip  Van  Winkles  of  a  world 
which  has  forgotten  them?  Just  beyond  Kana- 
gawa,  near  this  city,  is  the  spot  where  Urashima  lies 
buried  ;  so  it  must  be  all  true  ! 

For  three  nights  past  we  have  sate  heroically  on 
our  heels  at  Japanese  theatres,  witnessing  the  per- 
formances which   so   delight   the  Yokohama    public. 


2  2o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

If  you  can  put  up  with  the  "  pins  and  needles " 
which  come  into  the  hapless  lower  limbs  of  the 
European  after  about  an  hour  of  this  position  upon 
matting,  there  is  much  to  interest  in  such  places. 
They  are  wholly  unlike  any  temple  of  the  drama 
at  home.  The  first  odd  sight  is  an  anteroom  where 
everybody  hangs  up  his  or  her  clogs  and  waraji; 
and  just  imagine  six  hundred  pair  of  muddy  pattens 
on  pegs !  Next  is  a  teapot  room,  where  scores  of 
teapots  are  suspended  for  the  refreshment  of  the 
audience ;  since,  at  every  pause  in  the  performance, 
attendants  go  about  shouting  yoroshii  ka,  and  o  cha  ! 
o  cha !  which  is  "  Give  your  orders,"  and  "  Who 
wishes  for  the  honourable  tea  ? "  The  pit  is  a 
sloping  floor  covered  with  matting,  and  the  gallery 
is  divided  into  little  square  pens  with  railing  a  foot 
high,  all  nicely  matted  ;  and  hither — if  an  habitue — 
you  bring  your  cushion,  your  "  tobacco-mono,"  your 
charcoal  fire,  your  pipe,  your  baby — when  you  have 
one — and  see  at  your  ease  alternately  a  comic  piece 
and  the  successive  acts  of  some  tremendous  mediseval 
tragedy.  Everybody  goes  about  in  the  building  as 
he  likes — especially  the  children,  who  lift  up  the 
curtain  and  survey  the  preparations  for  the  next 
scene,  scamper  about  the  stage,  and  play  all  sorts  of 
private  games  until  the  acting  recommences,  when 
they  are  as  good  as  gold  and  quiet  as  mice.  The 
performers  come  on  from  the  "  boot  and  shoe  room," 
along  a  narrow  side  stage ;  the  female  parts  being 
taken  by  boys.  The  dresses  are  rich  and  the  acting 
intelligent,  though  extravagant — accompanied  almost 
always  by  a  wild  instrumental   recitative  of  strings 


DAX.TIUM     I  III-:    Af'TOIt. 


POETRY  AND  FLA  \ 'S.  2 2 1 

and  drum.  Changes  of  the  mise-en-scene  and  the 
general  business  of  the  stage  are  accomplished  by 
persons  who  flit  on  and  off  in  black  habiliments, 
which  are  supposed  to  render  them  totally  invisible 
to  the  spectators.  These  are,  like  Japanese  every- 
where, attentive,  patient,  easily  pleased,  and  imagi- 
native to  the  highest  degree.  They  are  abundantly 
content  to  see  a  forest  where  two  small  shrubs  in 
pots  are  placed  upon  the  boards ;  and  an  impene- 
trable wall,  where  a  split  bamboo  or  a  couple  of 
stones  have  been  deposited.  The  great  character 
of  most  pieces  is  the  samurai,  the  two-sworded 
swashbuckler,  who  comes  prancing  in  with  a  terrific 
swagger  and  ends  by  drawing  his  glittering  blades 
to  engage  in  fiery  combat,  or  to  commit  the  hara-kiri. 
The  correct  mode  of  performing  this  latter  rite  is  by 
a  thrust — as  I  have  learned — not  a  slash,  and  the 
weapon  remains  in  the  wound,  until  all  final  dis- 
positions have  been  comfortably  effected.  Every- 
body smokes  everywhere  in  a  Japanese  theatre,  no 
one  hustles  for  his  place,  or  wants  more  than  his 
own  heels  to  sit  upon.  A  policeman  in  uniform 
occupies  a  private  pen  at  the  back,  and  by  a  lighted 
paper  lantern,  reads  loftily  and  apart  the  day's 
shimbun  while  the  entertainment  proceeds.  The 
scenery  is  either  absent,  or  of  the  simplest  character. 
The  serious  and  lyrical  pieces  are  given  in  the  old 
pure  style  of  Japan,  unmixed  with  the  Chinese 
words  which  enter  so  ■  freely  into  modern  and 
colloquial  Japanese. 

This   leads  to   some  mention  of  Japanese  poetry, 
which    has,   I    have    ascertained,    some    remarkable 


222  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

peculiarities.  Japan  has  borrowed  from  abroad  her 
religion,  laws,  writings,  her  wonderful  arts  in  em- 
broidery, lacquer,  carving,  and  pottery.  The  only 
thing  perfectly  original  is  her  classical  poetry.  No 
Chinese  word,  as  has  been  remarked,  occurs  in  the 
pure  style  of  this,  which  possesses  practically  but 
one  metre,  namely,  of  alternate  lines  of  five  and  seven 
syllables,  with  an  extra  line  of  seven  syllables  to 
mark  the  close.  For  the  sake  of  the  curious  in 
these  matters,  here  is  an  example,  with  translation, 
as  close  as  I  can  make  it,  after  erudite  help — 

"  Utsusemishi 

Kami  ni  taheneba 
Hanare-wite, 

Asa  nageku  Kimi  ; 
Sakari-wite, 

Waga  kofuru  Kimi 
Tama  naraba, 

Te  ni  maki-mocbite ; 
Kinu  naraba, 

Nugu  toki  mo  naku. 
Waga  kohimu 

Kimo  zo  kizo  no  yo 
Ime  ni  miyetsuru." 

This — which  is  the  form  of  all  high  and  ancient 
Japanese  verse — was  written  upon  the  death  of 
the  Mikado  Tenji  by  one  of  his  ladies,  and  means, 
in  much  the  same  measure — 

"  Oh,  unconsoled  one ! 

Shut  from  converse  with  above, 
Dawn  of  the  morning 

Finds  my  spirit  comfortless  ; 


POETRY  AND    PLAYS.  223 

Flight  of  the  daytime 

Sees  me  sighing  for  my  Prince. 
Wert  thou  11  jewel 

On  mine  arm  I  had  bound  thee ; 
Silk  obi  wert  thou 

Night  and  day,  over  my  heart, 
Thee  had  I  folded. 

Now,  my  lover !   my  lost  lord  ! 
Only  in  a  dream  I  see  thee ! 

So  musical  is  Japanese  speech  that  this  rudi- 
mentary rhythmical  form  satisfies  the  native  ear 
to-day  in  a  street  ballad  as  it  did  the  courtiers  of 
the  Mikado  in  the  seventh  century.  There  are  also 
certain  very  curious  adjuncts  employed  by  the 
Japanese  muse  known  as  "  pillow-words "  and 
"  pivots."  To  explain  these  would  lead  too  far 
into  a  technical  subject,  but  they  are  luminously 
expounded  by  Mr.  B.  H.  Chamberlain  in  his 
"Classical  Poetry  of  the  Japanese."  Simplicity, 
conservatism,  and  courtly  polish  are  declared  by 
this  great  authority  to  be  the  characteristic  features 
of  the  poetry  of  the  charming  people.  "  Xowhere," 
says  the  author,  "do  we  come  across  a  low  word 
or  vulgar  thought.  Even  the  mention  of  low  people 
and  things  seems  prohibited.  Japanese  verse  in 
one  unchanging  and  natural  melody  dwells  on  the 
simple  themes  common  to  all  mankind — love,  hopes, 
regrets,  loyalty,  old  traditions,  and  the  transitoriness 
of  human  life.  As  in  Japanese  scenery  we  miss  the 
awe-inspiring  grandeur  of  the  Alps  and  the  vast 
magnificence  of  the  wide,  watered  plains  of  the 
American  continent,  but  are  delighted  at  each  turn 


224  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

by  the  merry  plashing  of  a  mountain  torrent,  the 
quaintly  painted  eaves  of  some  little  temple  pictur- 
esquely perched  on  a  hillside  amid  plantations  of 
pines  and  cryptomerias,  or  by  the  view  of  fantastic 
islets  covered  by  bamboos  and  azaleas,  while  we 
thread  our  way  through  the  mazes  of  the  Inland 
Sea,  so  do  we  seem,  on  turning  over  the  pages  of 
the  Japanese  poets,  to  be,  as  it  were,  transported  to 
some  less  substantial  world,  where  the  deeper  and 
wilder  aspect  of  things  are  forgotten,  and  where 
prettiness  and  a  sort  of  tender  grace  are  allowed 
to  reign  supreme."  Poetry  having  always  been  a 
favourite  study  in  Japan,  there  exist  numerous 
volumes  of  verses  either  written  or  collected  by  the 
old  Court  nobles.  Of  these  the  most  ancient  is  the 
Manyoshiu,  or  "  Collection  of  a  Myriad  Leaves," 
which  dates  from  the  eighth  century.  But  this 
work,  notwithstanding  its  antiquity,  is  less  familiar 
than  the  Hlakuninshiu,  or  "  Collection  of  One 
Hundred,"  which  includes  some  pieces  written  by 
Emperors  themselves.  This  was  followed  by  almost 
numberless  minor  volumes  of  the  same  kind.  Verse- 
making  attained  to  such  favour  that  it  was  a  usual 
custom  for  one  of  the  nobles  to  invite  together 
several  of  his  friends  noted  for  their  scholarship  to 
pass  away  the  time  in  this  occupation.  The  verses 
were  in  nearly  all  cases  in  the  style  known  as  trfa — 
explained  above — the  pure  Japanese  ode,  as  oj)posed 
to  the  shi,  or  Chinese  poetry,  introduced  in  later 
years.  Each  uta  is  complete  in  itself,  and  expresses 
one  idea.  The  Japanese  do  not  possess  any  great 
epics   or  didactic   poems,  but    their   utas   are   often 


n 


POETRY  AND   PLAYS.  '    225 

inscribed  on  long  strips  of  variegated  paper  ;  and  it 
is  even  now  a  common  practice,  when  offering  a 
present,  to  send  with  it  a  verse  thus  composed  for 
the  occasion  by  the  donor.  Even  down  to  recent 
times,  when  a  man  had  determined  to  commit 
suicide,  or  was  about  to  hazard  his  life  in  some 
dangerous  enterprise,  it  was  not  uncommon  for  him 
to  prepare  and  leave  behind  him  a  verse  descriptive 
of  his  intention  and  of  the  motive  urging  him  to 
the  deed.  Sanetomo,  the  third  and  last  Shogun  of 
the  Minamoto  house,  was  so  extravagantly  fond  of 
poetry  that  any  criminal  could  escape  punishment 
by  offering  him  a  well-written  stanza. 

I  must  return  to  this  interesting  subject,  which 
well  deserves  study,  and  now  break  off  from  it  to 
mention  a  pleasant  excursion  made  the  day  before 
yesterday  to  Kama-Kura  and  the  lovely  seashore 
by  the  island  of  Enoshima,  at  no  great  distance 
from  Yokohama.  Kama-Kura,  which  means  "  the 
place  where  the  sickle  was  buried,"  was  once  the 
seat  of  Government  of  Eastern  Japan  ;  but  the 
slight  houses  of  this  country,  built  of  paper  and 
light  pine,  pass  away  like  leaves  of  the  forest,  and 
Kama-Kura  is  to-day  all  maple-grove  and  rice 
ground,  and  temples,  and  cherry-trees.  The  Shinto 
and  Buddhist  shrines  here  are  beautiful  and  in- 
teresting; but  the  chief  attraction  of  the  neighbour- 
hood is  a  gigantic  figure  in  bronze  of  the  Buddha, 
which  you  approach  by  crossing  the  stream  named 
Xameri-gawa.  There  is  a  little  story  told  here  of 
the  Japanese  nobleman,  Awoto.  "One  evening 
as   he  was   going  to  the    Palace   to   take   his  turn  in 


226  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

keeping  the  night-watch,  he  let  ten  cash  drop  out 
of  his  tinder-case  into  the  stream,  and  then  bought 
fifty  cash  worth  of  torches  to  search  for  the  lost 
coin.  His  friends  having  laughed  at  him  for  spend- 
ing so  much  in  order  to  recover  so  little,  he  replied, 
with  a  frown,  '  Sirs,  you  are  foolish  and  ignorant 
of  economics.  You  are  little  actuated  by  feelings 
of  benevolence.  Had  I  not  sought  for  these  ten 
cash  they  would  have  been  for  ever  lost,  sunk  at 
the  bottom  of  the  Nameri-gawa.  The  fifty  cash 
which  I  have  expended  on  torches  will  remain  in 
the  hands  of  the  tradesman.  Whether  he  has 
them,  or  I,  is  no  matter ;  but  not  a  single  one  of 
these  sixty  has  been  lost,  which  is  a  clear  gain 
to  the  country.' '  It  is  doubtful  if  this  would  pass 
muster  with  the  authorities  upon  Economic  Science. 
As  you  approach  the  village  of  Hase  from  the 
Hachiman  temples,  in  sight  of  the  blue,  calm  sea, 
dotted  with  fishing-boats,  the  colossal  bronze  figure 
of  the  Dai  Butsu  rises  over  the  leafless  plum  and 
cherry  trees.  The  "  Unspeakable "  sits  grandly 
upon  a  vast  expanded  lotus  blossom,  50  feet  high 
from  knee  to  top-knot,  with  eyes  4  feet  long,  face 
from  ear  to  ear  measuring  18  feet,  and  gigantic 
folded  hands,  of  which  the  thumbs  have  a  circum- 
ference each  of  3  feet,  The  half- veiled  eyeballs  are 
of  pure  gold,  and  the  silver  boss  upon  the  forehead, 
denoting  the  Buddha's  wisdom,  weighs  30  lb.  avoir- 
dupois. A  broad  courtyard  with  paved  way  leads 
the  votary  up  to  the  majestic  and  placid  presence 
of  the  "  Amitabha,"  in  front  of  whose  folded  knees 
are  placed  the    usual  grated  box  for-  offerings,  and 


POETRY  AND   PLAYS.  227 

images,  in  gilded  bronze,  of  lotus  and  rose  blossoms. 
The  expression  of  ineffable  calm  upon  the  ancient 
effigy  well  befits  the  tranquil  scene  around,  the 
sleeping  ocean,  the  laughing,  happy  village  groups, 
the  quiet  groves  of  bamboo  and  maple,  and  the  vast 
expanse  of  fertile  plain  beyond  the  little  hill,  where 
in  the  distance  soars  Fuji-San.  The  Lady  of  Moun- 
tains to-day  has  laid  aside  her  veil  of  clouds,  but 
appears  like  a  silver  cloud  which  has  taken  the 
form  of  a  sleeping  snow-clad  volcano.  From  all 
that  can  be  seen  of  the  lower  portions  to  the  summit 
— slightly  truncated — of  the  superb  eminence,  every 
portion  is  dazzling  white  by  reason  of  last  night's 
snowfall.  The  exquisitely  symmetrical  cone,  ascend- 
ing high  above  the  upper  cumuli,  takes  exactly  their 
argentine  lustre  from  the  strong  light  of  the  after- 
noon, and  makes  the  clouds  seem  solid  by  its 
delicate  aerial  outlines,  which  are,  nevertheless, 
fixed  and  clear.  Below  us  the  immense  bronze 
Buddha,  seven  centuries  old,  and  representing  a  faith 
twenty-five  centuries  old,  which  teaches  the  imper- 
manency  of  the  visible,  the  eternity  of  the  invisible. 
Beyond  us  that  silvery  apparition  of  cloud  and 
mountain,  where — if  we  did  not  know  her  by  daily 
sight  and  admiration — none  could  say  which  was 
Fuji-San — "Lady  of  all  Hills" — and  which  the 
fleeting  vapours  of  the  Pacific  main.  It  was  as 
if  the  Japanese  landscape  taught  not  sadly,  but 
silently — 

"  We  are  such  stuff" 
As  dreams  are  made  of:  and  our  little  lives 
Are  rounded  with  a  sleep." 


228  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

We  rested  to  drink  meditative  tea  at  the  Chaya 
of  the  Hoshi-no-ido,  or  "  Well  of  the  Star,"  where 
the  fisher-girls  of  Enoshima,  spreading  the  tiny 
sea-minnows  to  dry  in  the  sun,  soon  laughed  and 
chatted  away  all  dull  philosophies. 

Yokohama,  Nov.  23,  1889. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

A    JAPANESE    DINNER. 

A  banquet  here,  properly  arranged,  served,  and 
located,  furnishes,  in  my  humble  judgment,  as 
graceful  and  delightful  a  meal  as  can  be  shared  in 
all  the  world  ;  and  casts  into  the  shade  the  classic 
memories  of  the  triclinia  of  ancient  times,  the  too 
solid  and  lavish  dishes  of  Turkey  and  Syria,  the 
cloying  sweetmeats  of  an  Indian  burra  Khana, 
and  even  in  many  respects  the  festal  triumphs  of 
a  Parisian  or  London  cordon  bleu.  The  act  of 
eating  is,  in  truth,  somewhat  gross,  and  of  the 
animal ;  albeit,  decidedly  necessary.  Japanese  taste 
and  fancy,  have,  however,  known  how  to  elevate 
this  somewhat  humiliating  daily  need  from  a.  pro- 
cess of  mere  nourishment  into  a  fine  art  and  a 
delicate  divertissement,  where  every  sense  is  in  turn 
softly  pleased  and  soothed,  and  food  and  drink  fall 
in  like  pleasant  interludes  without  ever  assuming 
the  chief  importance  of  the  occasion.  None  the 
less  may  you  fare  abundantly,  luxuriously,  and  to 
repletion,  if  you  will,  from  the  Japanese  menu;  but 
the  fare  is  all  the  more  agreeable  and  digestible 
because  you  eat  what  you  like,  when  yon  like, 
as    you    like,  and   in    what    order   you  like  during 


230  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

three  or  four  placid  hours,  converted  into  a  dream 
of  pleasure  by  accomplished  dancing  and  singing, 
and  by  the  most  perfect  and  most  charming  service. 
It  was  our  good  fortune  lately  to  be  invited  to  a 
typical  native  dinner  at  the  Japanese  Club  in  this 
capital,  of  which  I  will  offer  a  sketch  in  the  very 
lightest  outline.  The  club,  situated  in  the  heart 
of  the  city,  is  a  building  entirely  of  the  indi- 
genous style  as  to  design  and  decoration,  frequented 
chiefly  by  the  higher  officials  and  noblemen  of 
Tokio.  Imagine,  if  you  can,  endless  platforms  of 
polished  wood,  stairway  ladders  of  shining  cedar 
and  pine,  apartment  after  apartment  carpeted  with 
spotless  matting,  and  walled  by  the  delicate  joinery 
of  the  shoji — everywhere  a  scrupulous  neatness, 
an  exquisite  elegance,  a  dainty  aesthetic  reserve; 
nothing  too  much  anywhere  of  ornament.  Except 
the  faultless  carpentry  of  the  framework  and  the 
tender  colour  of  the  walls  and  panelled  ceilings, 
you  will  see  only  a  stork  or  two  in  silk  embroidery 
here,  a  dream  in  sepia  of  Fuji-San  there,  a  purple 
chrysanthemum  plant  yonder,  in  its  pot  of  green 
and  grey  porcelain,  and  the  snow-white  floors,  with 
their  little  square  cushions.  Our  dinner  was  one 
of  about  twenty  cushions,  and  we  were  received 
at  the  entrance  by  about  as  many  musumes — 
the  servants  of  the  establishment — having  their 
okusama  at  their  head,  who,  upon  our  approach, 
prostrate  themselves  on  the  outer  edge  of  the 
matted  hall,  uttering  musical  little  murmurs  of  wel-  • 
come  and  honour.  Our  footgear  is  laid  aside  below 
the  dark  polished   margin  of  the  hall,  and  we  step 


BWftWW 


A  JAPANESE   DINNER.  231 

upon  the  soft  yielding  talamis,  and  are  each  then 
led  by  the  hand  of  sonic  graceful,  small,  tripping 
musume  to  the  broad  ladder,  up  which  we  must 
ascend  to  the  dining-room,  enlarged  for  the  occa- 
sion by  the  simple  method  of  running  back  the 
shutters  of  papered  framework.  The  guests  com- 
prise European  ladies  as  well  as  gentlemen,  and  all 
are  in  their  stocking-feet,  for  the  loveliest  satin 
slipper  ever  worn  could  not  venture  to  pass  from  the 
street  pavement  to  these  immaculate  mats.  While 
you  chat  with  friends  you  turn  suddenly  to  find  one 
of  the  damsels  in  the  flowered  kimono,  and  the 
dazzling  obi,  kneeling  at  your  feet  with  a  cup  of 
pale  tea  in  her  tiny  hands.  Each  guest  receives 
this  preliminary  attention,  then  the  square  cushions 
are  ranged  round  three  sides  of  the  room,  and  we 
tuck  our  legs  under  us — those,  at  least,  who  can 
manage  it — and  sit  on  our  heels,  the  guest  of  honour 
occupying  the  centre  position  at  the  top.  To  each 
convive  then  enters  a  pretty,  bright,  well-dressed 
Japanese  waitress,  with  hair  decked  "  to  the  nines," 
stuck  full  of  flowers  and  jewelled  pins,  and  shining 
like  polished  black  marble.  [She  never  speaks  or 
settles  to  any  serious  duty  of  the  entertainment 
without  falling  on  her  little  knees,  smoothing  her 
skirt  over  them,  and  knocking  her  nice  little  flat 
nose  on  the  floor  ;  and  will  either  demurely  watch 
you  use  your  hashi — your  chopsticks — in  respectful 
silence,  or  prettily  converse,  and  even  offer  her 
advice  as  to  the  most  succulent  morsels  of  the  feast, 
and  the  test  order  in  which  to  do  them  justice. 
Before  each  guest  is  first   placed  a  cake  of  sugared 


2 32  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

confectionery  and  some  gaily-coloured  leaf-biscuits, 
with  a  tiny  transparent  cup  of  hot  tea.  Then 
comes  the  first  "  honourable  table,"  a  small  lacquered 
tray  with  lacquered  bowls  upon  it,  containing  a 
covered  basin  of  tsuyu-soup — the  "  honourable  dew  " 
— a  little  pot  of  soy,  a  gilded  platter  with  various 
sweet  and  aromatic  condiments  upon  it,  and  some 
wonderful  vegetables,  environing  some  fairy  cutlets 
of  salmon.  You  disengage  your  chopsticks  from 
their  silken  sheath  and  prepare  for  action — nor  is  it 
so  very  difficult  to  wield  those  simple  knives  and 
forks  of  Eastern  Asia,  if  once  the  secret  of  the 
guiding  finger  between  them  be  learned.  Otherwise 
you  will  drop  the  very  first  mouthful  from  the  soup- 
bowl  upon  your  shirt  front,  to  the  gentle  but  never 
satirical  laughter  of  your  musume.  Amid  the  talk 
which  buzzes  around,  you  will  have  inquired  of  her 
already  in  Japanese,  "  What  is  your  honourable 
name  ?"  and  "  How  many  are  your  honourable 
years?"  and  she  will  have  informed  you  that  she  is 
0  Hoshi,  0  Shika,  0  Tsubaki — that  is  to  say,  "  Miss 
Star,"  "  Miss  Camellia,"  or  "  Miss  Antelope  "—and 
that  she  was  eighteen  years  of  age,  or  otherwise,  on 
her  last  birthday.  Respectfully  you  consult  0  Shika 
San  as  to  what  you  should  do  with  the  fragrant  and 
appetising  museum  of  delicacies  before  you.  She 
counsels  you  to  seize  the  tiny  lump  of  yellow 
condiment  with  your  chopsticks,  to  drop  it  in  the 
soy,  to  stir  up  and  flavour  therewith  the  pink  flakes 
of  salmon,  and  you  get  on  very  famously,  watched 
by  her  almond  eyes  with  the  warmest  personal 
interest.     Now  and   again  she   shuffles   forward  on 


A  JAPANESE   DINNER.  233 

her  small  knees  to  fill  your  sake-cup,  or  to  re- 
arrange the  confusion  into  which  your  little  bowls 
and  platters  have  somehow  fallen  ;  always  with  ;i 
consummate  grace,  modesty,  and  good  breeding. 
And  now,  while  you  were  talking  with  your  neigh- 
hour,  she  has  glided  oft' and  reappeared  with  another 
tray,  on  which  is  disclosed  a  yet  more  miscellaneous 
second  service.  Her  brown,  tiny,  well-formed  hands 
insinuate  deftly  within  reach,  as  you  kneel  on  your 
cushion,  numerous  saucers  clustered  round  a  fresh 
red  lacquer  basin  of  vegetable  soup,  wherein  swim 
unknown  but  attractive  comestibles.  The  combina- 
tions of  these  are  startling,  if  you  venture  upon 
questioning  the  delighted  0  Shika  San,  but  yon 
must  be  possessed  of  a  courageous  appetite,  or  3-011 
will  subsequently  disappoint  the  just  expectations 
of  "  Miss  Antelope."  Here  are  shrimps,  it  seems, 
pickled  with  anzu  (apricots),  snipe  subtly  laid  in 
beds  of  coloured  rice,  and  kitri  (chesnuts);  wild 
goose  with  radish  cakes,  and  hare  (magi),  seasoned 
by  preserved  cherries,  amid  little  squares  of  perfumed 
almond  paste,  and  biscuits  of  persimmon.  The  piece 
de  resistance  is  a  pretty  slab  of  fluted  glass,  whereon 
repose  artistic  fragments  of  fish — mostly  raw — so 
grouped  that  the  hues  and  outlines  of  the  collection 
charm  like  a  water-colour  drawing.  You  play  with 
your  chopstick  points  among  shreds  of  tako  (the 
cuttle-fish),  kani  (crab  paste),  xaha  and  hiramc, 
resembling  our  mackerel  and  soles;  and  are  led  by 
the  earnest  advice  of  your  kneeling  musum'e  to  try, 
perhaps,  the  uncooked  trout  yamame.  With  the 
condiments  her  little  fingers  have  mixed  it  is  so  good 


234 


SEAS  AND  LANDS. 


that  you  cease  presently  to  feel  like  a  voracious  seal, 
and  wonder  if  it  be  not  wrong,  after  all,  to  boil  and 
fry  anything.  Environed  with  all  these  tiny  dishes, 
and  lightly  fluttering  from  one  to  another — with  no 
bread  or  biscuit,  it  is  true,  but  the  warm,  strong  sake 
to  wash  all  down  (for  the  glossy-haired  musume 
keeps  a  little  flask  at  her  side  for  your  special  use) 
— you  are  beginning  at  last  to  be  conscious  of  having 


waiting  ma i in- 


clined extraordinarily  well,  and  also,  perchance,  of 
"  pins  and  needles  "  in  your  legs.  Ho  you  say  JIo 
yoroshii — "It  is  enough!" — and  now  the  service 
relapses  a  little  for  music  and  dancing. 

The  shoji  are  pushed  back  at  the  far  end  of  the 
room,  and  three  musicians  are  discovered  playing 
the  samisen,  the  thirteen-stringed  koto,  and  a  kind 
of  violin.     Before  them   sit   the  best    Geishas  from 


A  JAPANESE    DINNER.  235 

Kioto,  and  wo  are  pleasantly  weaned  from  our 
desultory  dinner  by  a  dramatic  pas  de  deux,  founded 
on  the  subjoined  ideas:  Hidari  Jingoro  was  one 
of  the  most  celebrated  wood-carvers  of  Japan.  lie 
flourished  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. Specimens  of  his  work  are  to  be  seen  in 
the  great  temples  at  Nikko  and  in  Kioto.  The 
tradition  represented  in  this  dance  is  the  Japanese 
"  Pygmalion  and  Galatea."  Hidari  Jingoro  having 
employed  all  the  resources  of  his  art  to  carve  the 
image  of  a  Kioto  beauty  to  whom  lie  is  said  to 
have  been  attached,  succeeds  so  admirably  that, 
one  day,  he  suddenly  finds  the  figure  endowed  with 
life  and  movement.  But  although  the  girl  is  there 
in  the  flesh,  her  soul  is  the  soul  of  Jingoro — she 
thinks  with  his  thoughts,  and  moves  with  his  move- 
ments. Jingoro  would  fain  alter  this,  and  convert 
the  wooden  image  into  Umegaye  herself — as  well 
in  the  mind  as  in  appearance.  He  considers  that 
the  object  upon  which  all  the  feminine  instincts  of 
the  fair  sex  are  concentrated  is  a  mirror.  Accord- 
ingly he  places  a  mirror  in  the  girl's  hand,  and  she, 
seeing  her  own  face,  immediately  becomes  Umegaye, 
and  ceases  to  be  a  female  replica  of  Jingoro.  De- 
prived of  the  mirror,  however,  she  loses  individuality, 
and  is  once  more  a  living  automaton.  The  little 
itiusumes  withdraw  to  the  side-walls  that  we  may 
better  watch  every  step.  Absolutely  impossible  is 
it  to  describe  with  how  much  eloquence  of  pace 
and  gesture  the  little  girl  in  gold  and  blue  dances 
and  glances  round  the  motionless  girl  in  gold  and 
scarlet,  until  she  has  charmed  that  black-eved  statue 


236 


SEAS  AND  LANDS. 


into  life.  And  then  the  rapture  ;  the  illusion ;  the 
disillusion  ;  the  anguish  of  watching  the  imitative- 
ness  of  that  brown  Galatea ;  the  joy  when  the 
mirror  renders  her  individual ;  the  grief  when 
without  it  she  relapses  into  a  living  shadow  of 
her    dark-skinned    Pygmalion ;    the    artistic   graces 


DANCING   GIRLS. 


developed  and  the  dainty  passages  of  emotion 
tripped  to  the  simple  but  passionate  music,  with 
the  gilded  silken  kimono  floating  and  flutter- 
ing about  those  small  bare  feet,  those  slender 
bended    knees!     The    dance    was    a    real    piece    of 


A  JAPANESE   DINNER.  237 

choregraphic  genius,  and  the  applause  sincere  when 
the  sculptor  and  his  lovely  image  bent  themselves 
to  the  earth,  and  demurely  resumed  their  cushions. 

Meantime,  obeying  Japanese  etiquette,  each 
guest  in  turn  comes  to  the  "  imest  of  honour," 
asks  leave  to  drink  from  his  sake-cup,  and  obtain- 
ing it,  raises  the  vessel  to  his  forehead,  drinks, 
rinses  it  in  the  water-bowl  and  fills  it  for  his  friend. 
When  this  is  done,  the  "guest  of  honour"  must 
go  round  and  pledge  his  associates  in  the  same 
way,'  while  the  three  sides  of  the  convivial  square 
now  for  a  time  break  up  into  chatty  groups,  wherein 
the  mummes  mingle  like  living  flowers  scattered 
about.  But  dinner  is  not  nearly  finished  yet. 
Before  each  cushion  there  is  again  laid  a  lacquered 
tray — none  of  the  others  being  yet  removed — and 
this  contains  the  choicest  fish  which  can  be  pro- 
cured— a  whole  one — with  his  tail  curled  up  in  a 
garland  of  flower-buds,  together  with  cakes,  scented 
spice-balls,  and  sugar-sticks,  which  you  are  to  eat 
if  you  can.  If  not  able  to  cope  with  these  new 
dainties,  they  will  be  put  into  pretty  boxes  and 
deposited  in  your  carriage  or  jinrikisha — indeed, 
it  is  necessary  to  be  careful  in  leaving  one  of  these 
entertainments,  or  you  may  sit  on  a  boiled  mullet, 
or  a  stuffed  woodcock,  or  some  cream-tartlets. 

While  we  dally  with  the  third  service  the  Geishas 
dance  again  and  again — the  last  performance  being 
full  of  comic  grace.  Tt  was  called  the  "  Arashi- 
yama."  Arashi-yama  is  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
spots  in  Kioto.  Its  cherry  blossoms  in  spring  and 
its  maples  in  autumn  attract  thousands  of  visitors. 


238  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Among  the  cherry-trees  there  was  a  little  theatre 
called  Mibu-do,  where  wordless  plays  used  to  be 
acted  when  the  flowers  were  in  full  bloom.  Here 
the  Palace  ladies  were  in  the  habit  of  coming;  every 
season,  and  their  attendants  enjoyed  a  picnic  and 
extemporised  plays  for  the  ladies'  amusement.  The 
dance  represented  such  a  picnic.  During  the  carouse 
a  female  enters,  beautifully  dressed,  but  wearing  the 
mask  of  "  Okame  "  (the  colloquial  term  for  a  par- 
ticularly fat  homely  wench) .  The  convives,  persuaded 
that  this  disguise  is  intended  to  conceal  uncommon 
charms,  press  her  to  drink ;  and  she,  after  receiving 
their  attentions,  suddenly  removes  her  mask,  ex- 
hibiting the  face,  not  of  a  lovely  damsel,  but  of  the 
veritable  Okame  herself,  the  patron  goddess  of  plain 
women.  With  wonderful  spirit  and  charm  the  gay 
little  danseuses  performed  this  comedy,  ending  our 
long  but  never  tedious  dinner  of  five  hours  with  a 
special  figure  called  Sentakuya,  or  the  "  Washer- 
men's Trio."  After  this  each  musume  led  her  guest 
by  the  hand  to  the  hall.  Shoes  were  resumed, 
carriages  entered,  and  "  honourable  exits "  made, 
in  a  dazzling  forest  of  lighted  paper  lanterns,  and 
a  gentle  tempest  of  Sayondras  ("  Farewell !")  and 
Mata  irrashais  ("  Come  soon  again  !") 

As  for  me,  what  the  general  impressions  of  a 
wanderer  are  of  this  fair  and  friendly  land  may  be 
gathered  most  briefly  from  a  speech  drawn  from  me 
at  an  entertainment  with  which  T  was  honoured  at 
the  Tokio  Club,  and  of  which,  accordingly,  I  take 
courage  to  transmit  the  following  passages  from  a 
too  favourable  local  report — 


A  JAPANESE   J) INNER.  239 

I  must  avow  to  you,  gentlemen,  that  I  was  not  lured  hither 
by  any  guide-book  or  volume  of  travel,  though  I  have  read  most 
of  those  published  about  Japan  ;  but  by  a  grammar.  ( )ne  of your 
most  distinguished  English  fellow-residents  here,  whose  literary 
work  sheds  lustre  on  the  country  of  his  birth  and  the  community 
to  which  he  belongs — Professor  Basil  Hall  Chamberlain — has  com- 
piled, as  you  know,  a  Japanese  manual,  which  came  before  me  in 
my  editorial  chair  in  London.  I  read  casually  in  it,  with  much 
sudden  interest  as  a  student  of  languages  and  as  an  admirer  of 
high  manners,  about  Japanese  verbs  without  any  imperative  mood, 
.Japanese  interjections  without  abuse  or  anger,  strong  expressions 
in  Japanese  free  from  all  bitterness  or  blasphemy,  and  finally  of 
a  whole  Japanese  syntax  constructed  on  the  refined  and  gentle 
as  well  as  eminently  Christian  principle  of  exalting  another  and 
depreciating  one's  self.  I  felt  I  must  visit  a  country  characterised 
by  these  novelties.  On  my  voyage  across  the  Pacific  I  reperused 
day  by  day  that  admirable  grammar  which,  besides  a  perfect 
lucidity  of  method,  by  its  style  beguiles  study,  and  possesses  all 
the  fascination  of  a  romance  ;  but  I  arrived  here  in  all  the  more 
complete  perception  of  my  ignorance,  because  I  had  learned  how 
little  I  could  learn.  Yet  honest  ignorance  without  prepossessions 
has  one  advantage — it  is,  like  the  sensitive  plate  of  the  camera, 
ready  to  receive  and  faithfully  fix  first  impressions.  Those  are 
the  only  portions  of  a  mere  wayfarer's  opinions  in  anyway  worth 
uttering  or  hearing,  although  the  worth  of  even  these  is  small. 
I  blush  indeed — if  a  newspaper  editor  of  thirty  years  can  still 
successfully  blush — to  speak  at  all  of  my  four  weeks'  experience 
of  Japan  in  presence  of  those  who  live  here,  but  1  feel  that  the 
impression  will  be  enduring  when  I  say  that  -Japan  astonishes, 
absorbs,  delights,  fascinates,  and  wholly  contents  me.  I  have 
never  before  visited  any  land  where  I  envied  so  much  the  in- 
habitants and  the  residents.  I  doubt  not  that  there  is  here,  as 
everywhere,  another  side  to  this  sunny,  gay,  and  picturesque  ex- 
istence which  I  see  you  all  leading.  Besides  summer  heats, 
earthquakes,  and  the  distance  from  Pall  Mall,  whispers  come  to 
me  of  official  dreams  haunted  by  treaty  revision,  of  administrative 
caprices,  of  political   agitations,  of  diplomatic  rivalries,  and    of 


240  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

religious  discords.  Yet,  if  Japan  be  not  exactly  a  Paradise,  it 
appears  to  me  as  close  an  approach  to  Lotus-land  as  I  shall  ever 
find.  By  many  a  pool  of  water-lilies  in  temple  grounds  and  in 
fairy-like  gardens,  amid  the  beautiful  rural  scenery  of  Kama-Kura 
or  Nikko  ;  under  long  avenues  of  majestic  cryptomeria  ;  in  weird 
and  dreamy  Shinto  shrines  ;  on  the  white  matting  of  the  tea- 
houses ;  in  the  bright  bazaars  ;  by  your  sleeping  lakes,  and  under 
your  stately  mountains,  I  have  felt  farther  removed  than  ever  be- 
fore from  the  flurry  and  vulgarity  of  our  European  life.  I  have 
repeated  to  myself  again  and  again  those  Greek  verses  from  the 
Odyssey,  which  I  may  thus  translate — 

"  Whoso  has  tasted  tbe  honey  sweet  fruit  from  the  stem  of  the  lotus, 
Never  once  wishes  to  leave  it,  and  never  once  seeks  to  go  homeward  ; 
There  would  he  stay,  if  he  could,  content  with  the  eaters  of  lotus, 
Plucking  and  eating  the  lotus,  forgetting  that  he  was  returning." 

And  that  I  may  clear  myself  from  seeming  too  fanciful,  I-  must 
be  allowed  to  note,  gentlemen,  that  you  also  have  fallen  under 
this  inevitable  charm.  Your  houses  are  embellished  with  the 
exquisite  webs  from  the  looms  of  Japan,  with  her  delicate  and 
playful  conceits  in  ivory  and  bronze,  with  lovely  trophies  of  your 
taste  and  of  her  charm  in  lacquer  and  enamel.  You  condescend  to 
the  gay  jinrikisha,  and  you  like,  as  all  must,  the  soft  ways  and 
musical  voices  of  your  Japanese  attendants.  Best  and  noblest  of 
all  the  proofs  that  this  fair  land  enchants  and  constrains  you, 
is  the  devotion  to  its  service  in  public  matters,  in  science,  art, 
journalism,  literature,  and  philology,  abundantly  illustrated  by  the 
many  distinguished  Englishmen  present  this  evening.  I  am  not 
forgetting  the  estimable  work  wrought  by  our  foreign  friends  in 
most  or  all  of  these  branches,  when  I  declare  that  England  and 
Japan  are  both  of  them  deeply  indebted  to  the  English  professors, 
teachers,  engineers,  editors,  art  lovers,  and  students  who  have 
linked  their  names  so  closely  with  the  great  Japanese  renaissance. 
The  discovery  and  research  into  Sanskrit  by  Anglo-Indians  has 
done  more  to  keep  England  and  India  permanently  together  than 
would  another  army  of  100,000  men.  If  it  might  be  without 
wrong  or  offence  to  other  flags  I  could  earnestly  wish  that  English 


A  JAPANESE   DINNER.  241 

might  become  the  second  language  of  Japan.  Already  I  sec  with 
pride  that  this  is  not  impossible  ;  and,  speaking  on  behalf  of  verv 
many  at  home,  I  respectfully  thank  those  gentlemen  whose  labours 
have  bestowed  upon  England  so  large  a  hope.  To  come  down 
from  great  tokens  to  small,  the  inscriptions  on  the  signboards,  I 
observe,  are  mainly  translated  into  English.  Sometimes  these  are 
a  little  comic,  but,  passing  one  such  the  other  day  in  a  remote 
village,  when  my  companion  smiled,  I  remarked  that  five  out  of 
those  funny  eight  words  were  of  Sanskrit  derivation,  and  I  re- 
flected how  natural  it  would  be  that,  as  her  religion  came  of  old 
to  Japan  from  India,  the  guardians  of  India,  themselves  Aryan, 
should  now  become  foremost  in  developing  her  literature,  her 
resources,  and  her  prosperity.  I  am  honoured  by  the  presence 
here  this  evening  of  many  Japanese  gentlemen  whom  I  cordially 
thank  for  this  proof  of  interest  in  the  name  and  writings  of  one 
whose  sole  real  title  to  the  favour  of  so  many  Eastern  friends  is 
his  earnest  and  abiding  goodwill.  I  shall  venture  even  more 
boldly  to  tell  them  what  I  have  dared  to  tell  my  countrymen,  that 
Professor  Chamberlain's  wonderful  grammar  in  no  wise  misled  me, 
and  that  I  am  glad  I  have  lived  to  visit  their  great,  beautiful, 
and  friendly  country.  Yet  what  I  find  here  more  marvellous  to 
me  than  Fuji-San,  lovelier  than  the  embroidered  and  gilded  silks, 
precious  beyond  all  the  daintily  carved  ivories,  more  delicate 
than  the  cloistered  enamels,  is  that  ceaseless  grace  in  the  popular 
manners,  that  simple  joy  of  life,  that  universal  alacrity  to  please 
and  be  pleased,  that  almost  divine  sweetness  of  disposition  which, 
I  frankly  believe,  places  Japan  in  these  respects  higher  than  any 
other  nation.  This  sounds  like  exaggeration,  and  I  shall  he  re- 
proached, perhaps,  for  praising  so  warmly  from  the  depth  of  that 
ignorance  which  my  friend  here,  Mr.  Gubbins,  so  well  knows  to 
be  fathomless,  a  land  where  the  women,  who  seem  to  me  almost 
semi-angelic,  enjoy  by  no  means  their  proper  rights,  and  where 
feudal  laws  have  still  left  traces  much  too  deep.  But  either  I 
am  an  incompetent  observer,  or  else  there  is  to  be  met  with,  in 
all  ranks  of  this  country  an  entirely  special  charm  of  demeanour, 
an  exquisite  finette  of  mutual  consideration,  a  politeness  humble 
without    servility    and    elaborate  without    affectation,  palpably 

17 


2 42  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

springing  from  graceful  goodwill,  all  which  lend  a  finer  atmo- 
sphere to  life,  and  render  the  courtliness  of  less  naturally  polished 
peoples  well-nigh  a  vulgarity.  Retain,  I  beseech  you,  gentlemen, 
this  national  characteristic,  which  you  did  not  import,  and  can 
never,  alas,  export.  Old  Will  Adams,  the  pilot  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, whose  name  is  preserved  in  a  street  in  this  city,  and  whose 
grave  is  on  your  shores,  the  first  Englishman  that  ever  saw  them, 
wrote  of  Japan  :  "  This  countrie  is  gouerned  with  greate  civilitie." 
So  it  is  still !  I  cannot  express  to  you  the  subtle  pleasure  I  have 
derived  from  contact  with  your  common  people  in  cities  and 
railway  stations,  in  villages,  in  tea-houses,  and  country  roads.  I 
have  nowhere  passed  without  learning  lessons  of  finer  manners 
than  I  knew  before,  and  without  being  instructed  in  that  delicacy 
of  heart  which  springs  from  time  goodwill  and  lies  above  all 
precept.  How  did  Japan  acquire  this  supreme  social  refinement  ? 
In  my  ignorance  I  attribute  it  to  three  chief  causes — the  happy 
mixture  of  blood  which  nature  and  history  have  blended  in  your 
veins ;  the  settled  peace  of  two  centuries  given  you  by  your  re- 
nowned secular  rulers ;  and  the  ever-softening  and  ever  human- 
ising influence  of  that  religion  about  which  I  at  least  can  never 
speak  without  reverence.  I  must,  indeed,  be  bold  to  say  that, 
wherever  the  doctrines  of  the  Great  Teacher  of  India  have  passed, 
they  bring  to  the  people  adopting  them,  or  partially  adopting 
them,  more  or  less  of  embellishment  and  elevation.  Nay,  I  believe 
it  impossible  that  the  religious  tenets  of  the  Buddha  should  ever 
enter  into  the  life  of  any  large  body  of  people  without  stamping 
on  the  national  character  ineffaceable  marks  of  the  placidity,  the 
kindliness,  the  glad  beliefs,  and  the  vast  consolations  embodied 
in  the  faith  of  Sakya  Muni.  Nor,  believe  me,  is  it  even  possible, 
in  spite  of  the  grave  authorities  which  assert  the  contrary  to  me, 
tli at  Buddhism  once  entering  a  land  should  ever  altogether  and 
finally  depart  from  it.  You  will  instantly  think  of  India,  and 
remind  me  that  the  professed  Buddhists  there  are  to  be  numbered 
by  scores  or  hundreds,  but  I  must  answer  that  all  Hindoo  India 
is  Buddhist  in  heart  and  essence.  The  sea  does  not  mark  the 
sand  more  surely  with  its  tokens  than  Gautama  has  conquered, 
changed,  and  crystallised  the  religious  views  of  the  Vedas  and 


A  JAPANESE   DINNER.  243 

Vedantas,  and  so  far  from  encouraging  any  one  to  hope  that 
Buddhism  will  pass  away  from  Japan,  or  from  any  other  of  its 
homes,  I  announce  my  conviction  that  it  will  remain  here  lom>- 
enough  to  reconcile  its  sublime  declarations  with  the  lofty  ethics 
of  Christianity  and  with  the  discoveries  of  Science,  and  will  be 
for  all  of  you  who  love  and  serve  the  East,  no  enemy,  but  a  potent, 
necessary,  and  constant  ally. 

Tokio,  Dec.  1, 1889. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  RANGE  OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE. 

A  request,  very  forcibly  urged,  on  the  part  of  the 
Japanese  Educational  Society,  the  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction,  and  some  representatives  of  the  Imperial 
University  here,  overcame  my  hesitation,  and  induced 
me  yesterday  to  deliver  the  address  of  which  I  subjoin 
a  report.  I  give  it  because  it  embodies  the  ideas 
and  suggestions  with  which  the  scene  and  the  people 
inspired  me,  and  that  I  may  be  better  able,  in  a 
subsequent  chapter,  to  offer  a  description  of  the 
characteristic  banquet,  and  above  all  of  the  deeply 
interesting  and  historical  Cha-no-yu,  or  "  Tea  of 
Honour,"  which  followed  the  feast,  and  at  both  of 
which  I  was  the  complimented  guest.  My  address 
— the  imperfections  of  which,  under  the  circum- 
stances of  travel,  I  hope  will  be  pardoned — was 
delivered  in  the  Lecture  Hall  of  the  Imperial  Uni- 
versity, Viscount  Enomoto,  Minister  of  State  for 
Education,  presiding ;  and  my  indulgent  and  intelli- 
gent audience  included,  besides,  the  Vice-Minister 
of  Education,  Mr.  Tsuji  Shinji,  the  United  States 
Minister  and  Admiral,  many  Japanese  professors, 
and  Buddhist  priests  of  the  various  denominations, 
together  with  five  or  six   hundred  of   the  students 


THE  RANGE  OE  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE.    245 

and  their  friends.  Under  the  shojl  of  the  large  hall 
stretched  far  and  wide  the  immense  city,  covering 
with  its  small  black  houses  as  large  an  area  as 
London.  Before  me  sate,  or  knelt,  the  flower  of 
the  Japanese  youth,  eager  to  hear;  and  among 
them,  with  shaven  heads  and  lappets  of  gold  fin- 
broidery,  "  the  calm  brethren  of  the  yellow  robe." 
Japanese  ladies,  in  their  pretty  national  kimono, 
honoured  me  by  their  presence,  as  well  as  many  of 
my  countrymen  and  countrywomen  resident  here. 
I  had  beside  me  the  greatest  of  Japanese  scholars — 
Mr.  Basil  Hall  Chamberlain — to  interpret,  at  the 
close,  to  those  who  could  not  follow  my  English, 
its  general  argument ;  and,  in  brief,  the  occasion 
was  one  which  demanded  better  gifts  than  mine. 
But  to  live  in  Japan  is  to  love  and  to  wish  to  serve 
her  gentle  and  interesting  people;  and  therefore, 
without  a  single  book  of  reference  by  me,  and  but  a 
short  time  to  meditate  my  speech,  I  did  the  best  1 
could,  as  follows — 

Honoured  by  an  invitation  to  address  this  important  society, 
my  first  impulse  was  very  respectfully  to  decline  for  reasons  of 
diffidence  ;  and  when  that  appeared  forbidden,  because  of  the  kind 
insistance  of  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  of  his  excellency  the  Vice- 
Minister  of  Education,  my  wish  was  to  rind  some  comprehensive 
topic  easy  for  a  scholar  to  handle  far  away  from  his  books,  and  at 
the  same  time  not  without  some  utility.  It  seemed  eventually 
that  I  should  perhaps  be  less  tedious  if  I  boldly  took  for  my 
theme  "The  Range  of  Modern  Knowledge,"  and  endeavoured  to 
suggest  in  outline  what  is  the  present  aspect  offered  by  the  world 
around  us  to  an  educated  European  of  average  acquaintance  with 
literature,  philosophy,  art,  science,  and  the  general  march  of 
Western  thought.     Such  a  topic  would  indeed  imply  arrogance 


246  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

and  sciolism  if  it  were  not  selected  quite  unpretentiously,  and 
merely,  as  a  means  of  trying  to  represent  to  a  Jaj)anese  audience 
some  of  the  grounds  on  which  the  ordinary  Englishman  fixes  his 
intellectual  standpoints  to-day,  and  some  among  the  hopes,  expec- 
tations, and  beliefs  with  which  he  regards  the  future.  I  shall 
attempt,  therefore,  this  afternoon,  in  the  lightest  possible  manner, 
without  any  affectation  of  profundity  or  omniscience,  to  draw 
attention  to  a  few  among  the  landmarks  which  show  how  far  our 
common  progress  has  gone  during  the  great  reign  of  Queen  Vic- 
toria, and  perhaps  shall  speculate  a  little  on  what  lies  behind  the 
visible  horizons  of  our  knowledge. 

Take,  for  example,  Astronomy.  How  different  is  the  concep- 
tion to-day  of  an  ordinary  well-informed  man  from  that  of  even 
the  greatest  mind  in  times  but  recently  gone  by  !  All  the  religions 
of  the  world,  let  me  ask  you  to  notice,  are  still  in  the  Ptolemaic 
stage  as  regards  the  infinite  heavens  surrounding  us.  They  were 
one  and  all  promulgated  under  the  pervading  idea  that  this  little 
planet,  our  temporary  home,  was  the  actual  centre  of  things,  and 
that  the  stars  were  hardly  more  than  pretty  mysterious  lanterns 
lighted  to  spangle  our  night-time.  In  your  Japanese  mythology 
the  Sun  Goddess  is  tempted  from  her  cave  of  retirement  by  a 
mirror ;  and  in  our  Bible  a  Hebrew  chieftain  commands  the  Sun 
to  stand  still  in  order  that  he  may  complete  a  sanguinary  victory. 
Your  legend  is  possibly  the  less  mythical  of  the  two,  for  it  is, 
indeed,  with  a  prism  and  with  a  mirror — the  spectroscope — that 
science  has  of  late  made  the  Sun  emerge  from  mystery,  and  con- 
fess the  elements  of  its  own  brightness  and  majesty.  But  all  the  re- 
ligions have  necessarily  been  pre-scientific  in  regard  to  astronomy 
and  have  thus  constructed  their  moral  and  cosmical  systems  on 
too  slender  a  basis,  until  Galileo  and  Copernicus  arose,  and  at  one 
stroke  altered  for  us  the  whole  aspect  of  the  universe.  We  now 
know  our  little  earth  to  be,  if  not  insignificant,  still  certainly, 
amid  all  its  shining  sisters,  one  of  the  youngest,  smallest,  and 
humblest.  Yet,  in  compensation  for  this  rebuke  to  our  pride,  and 
to  the  narrowness  of  theological  teachings,  how  magnificent  is  that 
enlargement  of  our  ideas  of  creation,  now7  become  quite  common- 
place !     The  very  nearest  of  those  fixed  stars,  as  everybody  is  to- 


THE  RANGE  OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE.   247 

day  aware,  flitters  so  far  away  that  it?  light  occupies  four  years  in 
reaching  us  ;  and  our  Sun,  which  was  thought  the  ruler  of  Heaven, 
is  recognised  as  hut  a  lighted  torch  compared  with  Sirius  or  Alde- 
haran.  At  the  same  time  Newton  has  taught  us  that  all  the  orbs, 
great  and  small,  in  space  are,  and  must  ever  be,  linked  together 
by  a  subtle  and  perpetual  bond  of  mutual  influence.  But  if  that 
illustrious  discoverer  could  have  employed  the  spectroscope  and 
the  stellar  photography  of  our  times,  how  vastly  would  even  his 
grand  ideas  have  been  elevated  by  a  wider  knowledge  of  the  im- 
measurable glory  of  the  visible  universe  now  revealed  to  common 
understandings !  Not  only  has  this  marvellous  instrument,  the 
spectroscope,  proved  to  us  the  kindred  nature  of  all  those  distant 
spheres,  and  enabled  us  actually  to  measure  their  rate  of  recession 
and  approach,  but  the  photographing-telescope  may  be  said  posi- 
tively to  blind  the  imagination  by  the  splendours  which  it  unveils 
in  the  boundless  range  of  those  celestial  fields  of  life.  I  lately 
stood  in  the  well-known  observatory  belonging  to  Harvard  College, 
Boston.  One  of  its  wonderful  tubes  was  directed  to  a  region  of 
the  sky,  seemingly — and  even  to  the  most  powerful  glasses — blank  ; 
hut  the  sensitive  plate  fixed  to  the  eyepiece  announced  the  exist- 
ence there  of  a  thousand  nameless  and  previously  unseen  stars ; 
and  to  whatever  part  of  the  apparent  darkness  its  finer  eye  con- 
tinued to  be  turned,  always  such  and  not  otherwise,  was  the 
superb  report  of  countless  new  worlds,  which  it  brought  back  from 
those  black  and  fathomless  abysses.  A  new  meaning  is  surely 
given  by  these  and  other  modern  astronomical  generalisations,  for 
the  thoughtful  man,  to  that  divine  phrase  of  our  New  Testament, 
"  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions."  There  exist,  indeed, 
stars  enough  now  within  sight  to  provide  every  human  soul  with 
a  world  apiece  ;  nevertheless,  the  greatness  of  man's  destiny  con- 
sists, as  all  may  at  last  comprehend,  not  in  fancying  himself  the 
centre  of  creation,  but  in  belonging  at  all  to  so  glorious  and  visible 
a  galaxy  of  life,  with  the  invisible  effulgence  and  the  infinite  possi- 
bilities lying  beyond  it. 

Coming  down  from  heaven  to  earth,  the  student  of  the  Victorian 
Era  perceives  better  than  ever  before  how  the  forces  of  nature, 
once  feared  and  deified,  have  really,  during  all  past  ages,  been  toil- 


248  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

ing,  like  faithful  builders  and  humble  masons,  to  finish  and  to 
beautify  our  planet  home.  The  very  earthquakes  that  now  and 
again  shake  your  city  are  the  last  fading  vibrations  of  an  original 
and  stupendous  terrestrial  energy  which  elevated  our  mountains 
and  depressed  our  valleys,  and  by  the  silent  aid  of  the  glacier,  the 
rain-cloud,  the  wind,  and  the  snow,  carved  out  the  surface  of  the 
earth  into  its  present  picturesque  variety.  We  know  not  how  long 
this  globe  rolled  lifeless  in  preparation  for  the  ancestry  of  man  ; 
but  we  know  how  slowly  he  was  developed,  not  succeeding  to  his 
estate  until  many  lowly  predecessors  had  brought  the  Pleiocene 
Age.  All  the  best  authorities  now  accept  from  Darwin  that  prin- 
ciple of  evolution  and  of  natural  selection  which,  if  it  shows  the 
descent  of  man  to  have  flowed  from  no  very  aristocratic  progenitors, 
implies,  on  the  other  hand,  a  continuous  and  an  ennobling  ascent, 
promising  to  lift  the  race,  even  in  this  sphere  of  things,  to  unknown 
heights.  Modern  chemistry  again  has  rendered  plain  the  material 
composition  of  our  planet,  as  well  as  of  the  bodies  which  we  in- 
habit. To  the  chemist's  eye,  man  is  made  up,  not  of  "  clay  "  or 
"  dust,"  as  is  ignorantly  said,  but  of  carbon,  lime,  water,  phos- 
phorus, silicon,  iron,  and  other  high  forms  of  matter ;  and  all 
this  by  a  natural  proportion  so  well  understood  that  a  glass  case 
at  South  Kensington  exhibits  the  precise  components  of  a  human 
body,  minus  its  vitality.  Matter,  itself,  though  to  the  philosophic 
insight  the  most  immaterial  of  things,  falls,  for  a  chemist,  into  a 
well-ordered  catalogue  of  some  seventy  elements,  the  atomic  bricks 
with  which  Nature  builds.  We  have  even  learned  to  take  to 
pieces,  and  afterwards  to  imitate,  her  building.  In  the  laboratory 
chemists  can  now  combine  from  unexpected  ingredients  the  once 
mysterious  alcohol  and  urea  ;  they  can  produce  salicylic  acid,  the 
bitter  principle  of  the  willow-tree,  from  coal-tar  ;  they  can  evolve 
from  the  same  once  wasted  commodity,  not  only  many  brilliant 
colours,  but  saccharine,  two  hundred  and  fifty  times  sweeter 
than  any  sugrr;  they  can  oxidise  glycerine  by  means  of  pow- 
dered platinum  and  so  educe  from  it  pure  grape  sugar ;  they  can 
manufacture,  as  Nature  herself  does,  the  dark  blue  dye  of  indigo 
and  the  ultramarine  of  artists ;  and  even  create  minutely  the 
ruby  and  the  diamond.     There  are  boundaries  to  our  constructive 


THE  RANGE  OE  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE.   249 

powers,  no  doubt,  which  we  shall  never  pass,  even  by  the  subtlest 
methods  of  the  alembic,  since  we  have  not  at  hand  Nature's  leisure 
and  Nature's  enormous  forces.  But  immense  discoveries  for  use 
and  for  ornament  still  evidently  await  the  progressive  chemist. 
Why,  for  instance,  should  he  be  always  less  wise  than  the  mush- 
room, which  knows  how  to  turn  the  nitrogen  of  the  atmosphere 
into  wholesome  food  within  a  night?  Up  to  this  hour  no  physio- 
logist can  accurately  tell  you  what  becomes  of  that  portion  of  the 
air  which  we  breathe  ;  but  the  lowest  fungus  is  well  aware  of  it, 
and  we  may  also  some  day  hope  to  be.  In  a  hundred  directions 
Science,  like  a  mother  with  her  sleeve  full  of  gifts,  beckons  her 
children  onward  to  fresh  secrets.  Why  is  selenium  so  curiously 
sensitive  to  light?  Why  does  10  per  cent,  of  aluminium  give 
to  copper  the  strength  of  steel?  And  when  shall  we  find  that 
sovereign  prophylactic,  already  half  foreshadowed  by  the  experi- 
ments of  Tyndall,  Koch,  and  Pasteur,  which  is  to  make  zymotic 
diseases  things  of  the  past,  or  greatly  to  control  and  confine  them  ? 
I  once  saw  Professor  Tyndall  roll  from  hand  to  hand  a  tuft  of 
carbonic  acid  gas,  transformed  by  pressure  into  a  visible  substance  ; 
but  perhaps  the  most  useful  of  all  his  exquisite  labours  have  been 
those  delicate  researches  into  floating  germs  and  organisms  which, 
combined  with  M.  Pasteur's  invaluable  achievements,  have  given 
medicine  a  new  departure,  and  encouraged  even  the  casual  observer 
to  hope  soon  for  the  most  fruitful  results  for  humanity.  The 
famous  Frenchman  has  already  practically  abolished  the  silkworm 
disease,  splenic  fever,  and  hydrophobia ;  and  we  seem  to  know, 
or  to  be  upon  the  point  of  knowing,  through  the  microscope,  the 
bacillus  or  seed-form  of  cholera,  of  consumption,  and  of  malaria. 
The  Victorian  Era  has  thus  led  us  pretty  confidently  to  trust  that 
the  invasion  of  these  evil  germs  into  the  human  body  will  some 
day  be  either  completely  prevented,  or  neutralised  by  an  easy 
remedy. 

In  Astronomy,  in  Geology,  in  Chemistry  alike  on  which  I  have 
so  slightly  touched,  I  hope  we  shall  owe  hereafter  many  solid 
debts  to  this  society  and  to  the  Imperial  University  of  Tokio. 
Everything  comes  to  man  from  himself,  by  observation,  by 
devotion,    and   by    true,    slow,   and    humble    scientific   methods. 


250  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

You  cannot,  gentlemen,  import  our  civilisations ;  you  must  make 
science  Japanese  by  time  and  patience.  Take  the  example  of 
one  whose  name  you  will  know  and  honour,  Sir  John  Lubbock. 
I  have  the  privilege  of  his  friendship,  and  have  watched  those 
daily  researches  of  his  by  which  he  has  thrown  so  much  interest- 
ing light  upon  the  habits  of  ants,  bees,  and  wasps,  as  well  as 
on  the  structural  marvels  of  the  floral  and  the  forest  world.  If 
you  have  read  his  delightful  books  and  could  afterwards  see  the 
simple  arrangements  which  have  produced  them,  those  among 
you  who  are  naturalists  would  be  encouraged  to  attempt  similar 
great  and  illuminating  things  for  us  in  your  richly  gifted  Japan, 
Wishing  to  find  out  the  sense  of  colour,  and  to  estimate  the  pre- 
ference for  different  flowers  displayed  by  bees,  you  see  Sir  John 
sitting  with  watch  and  pencil  in  his  garden  at  High  Elms.  On 
the  turf  lie  pieces  of  paper,  all  equal  in  size  and  smeared  with 
an  exactly  equal  amount  of  honey,  but  variously  tinted.  In  the 
summer  sunshine  the  bees  come  and  go,  attracted  by  the  honey. 
Selecting  their  favourite  hue — because  they  take  the  coloured 
papers  for  flowers — they  alight  in  numbers  upon#  one  of  the 
squares,  leaving  the  others  comparatively  neglected,  and  thus  in 
a  few  hours  we  have  obtained  an  answer  from  the  hive  itself, 
as  clear  and  business-like  as  the  popular  vote  which  you  will  soon 
give  for  your  new  Imperial  Parliament.  Sir  John  showed  me, 
not  long  ago,  the  little  apparatus  where  his  ant  cities  are  kept. 
Tier  above  tier,  in  shallow  boxes,  isolated  by  water  and  closed 
by  a  double  lid  of  glass  and  wood,  he  feeds  and  studies  there 
the  various  species  of  that  wonderful  insect.  He  drew  back  the 
wooden  lid  from  one  large  ant  city,  which  revealed  to  me  through 
the  glass  its  tiny  people  in  their  daily  life.  There,  in  the  central 
cell,  was  the  Queen,  imposing,  majestic,  isolated ;  courtier  ants 
stood  round,  always  respectfully  facing  her  majesty  ;  and  attend- 
ants brought  the  pupce,  or  ant  babies,  in  procession  before  the 
sovereign.  Slave  ants,  dark  of  hue,  performed  in  gangs  the 
hard  work  of  the  city  for  the  lighter  coloured  kwazoka*  and 
shizoku  of  the  community ;  and  small  white  wood-lice,  quite 
blind,  ran  about  by  the  by-ways  carefully  cleaning  up  all  dirt 
*  The  daimio.%  or  noblemen,  and  the  samurai,  or  swordsmen. 


THE  RANGE  OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE.   251 

and  litter.  You  may  think  I  am  romancing,  but  far  more  wonder- 
ful facts  reward  such  an  observer  as  Sir  John  Lubbock.  Indi- 
viduals in  an  ant  city  number  from  half  a  million  to  a  million, 
and,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  they  all  know  each  other.  Imagine 
anybody  recognising  every  single  face  in  Tokio ;  but  these  ants, 
whose  brain  is  smaller  than  a  pin's  head,  can  surely  do  it !  All 
this,  for  which  I  personally  answer,  discloses  a  new  sense  in  these 
minute  creatures  ;  while  experiments  made  with  the  light-ravs 
lying  beyond  the  red  and  violet,  totally  invisible  to  us,  prove 
clearly  that  many  small  living  things  are  quite  as  perfectly  aware 
of  those  hidden  beams  as  the  magnetic  needle  is  sensitive  to  t he 
polar  current  which  we  cannot  feel.  No  doubt  to  the  eye  of  the 
dragon  fly,  or  of  the  Dytiscus  beetle,  altogether  another  world  than 
ours  is  represented  by  the  ordinary  face  of  Nature,  near  and  far. 
These  facts  carry  the  thought  of  the  educated  European  as  far 
downward  into  the  lower  regions  of  biology  as  the  star  photo- 
graphs lift  it  upwards  in  the  celestial  regions.  And  everywhere 
alike  he  now  sees  at  work  the  same  grand  principle  of  evolution. 
Near  Sir  John  Lubbock's  house  is  another  one  which  I  know, 
lately  the  home  of  the  great  Darwin,  whereto  scientific  men  of 
the  future  will  make  pious  pilgrimage  as  to  a  shrine.  I  need  not 
dwell  upon  the  sublime  life-work  of  that  illustrious  man.  You 
know  his  books,  no  doubt,  by  heart ;  if  not,  hasten  to  read  them 
all,  from  "  A  Naturalist's  Voyage  in  the  Beagle  "  to  that  mar- 
vellous volume  in  which  he  shows  us  how  the  despised  earthworm 
is  one  of  the  very  best  servants  of  mankind,  and  manufactures 
for  us  the  soil  that  grows  our  barley  and  our  rice  ;  and  how  the 
clover  is  impossible  without  the  humble  bee,  with  a  thousand  other 
abstruse  secrets  of  Nature.  But  what  I  would  venture  to  observe 
in  connection  with  so  renowned  a  name  is  that  many  Darwinists 
themselves  are  far  as  yet  from  discerning  the  full  purport  of  their 
•rreat  master's  conclusions.  Evolution  explains  almost  everything 
except  itself.  Yet  surely  Natural  Selection  and  the  Survival 
of  the  Fittest  imply  in  the  Universe  such  an  essential,  and  I  had 
almost  said  such  a  passionate,  impulse  and  effort  towards  universal 
amelioration  that  of  themselves  they  might  furnish  a  religion  and 
a  worship.     Once    dismiss  the  idle  idea  that   death   is  an  evil. 


252  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

thereby  joyfully  accepting  Nature's  law  of  perpetual  unmaking 
and  re-making,  and  then  realise  with  what  love  and  care,  through 
what  aeons  of  patient  plotting,  she  must  have  meditated  to  pro- 
duce the  sting  of  the  scorpion — almost  the  earliest  creature  of  the 
rocks,  yet  furnishing  a  perfect  model  of  the  hyperdermic  syringe, 
invented  by  us  as  it  were  only  yesterday.  And  again,  look  at 
her  deep-sea  fishes  which,  swimming  in  ocean  darkness  three 
thousand  fathoms  down,  have  a  row  of  lamps  fitted  along  each 
side  to  light  them  in  pursuit  of  food.  There  is  probably  no  human 
invention,  from  the  net  which  your  Shinagawa  fisherman  throws, 
to  the  electric  lamp  shining  here  on  the  Emperor's  Palace,  but 
Nature  worked  it  out  beforehand  for  our  guidance,  as  in  the 
spider's  web  and  as  upon  the  bellies  of  those  fishes  brought  up 
by  the  Challenger's  deep-sea  lines.  It  is  here  that  Buddhism, 
justly  understood,  touches  the  hand  of  modern  science  ;  and,  if 
your  patience  permits,  I  will  be  bold  enough  to  read  from  "  The 
Light  of  Asia  "  a  few  verses  which  exactly  express  my  view — 

"  Before  beginning  and  without  an  end, 
As  space  eternal,  and  as  surety  sure, 
Is  fixed  a  Power  Divine  which  moves  to  good, 
Only  its  laws  endure. 

This  is  its  touch  upon  the  blossomed  rose, 
The  fashion  of  its  hand-shaped  lotus-leaves ; 

In  dark  soil  and  the  silence  of  the  seeds 
The  robe  of  spring  it  weaves ; 

That  is  its  painting  on  the  glorious  clouds, 
And  these  its  emeralds  on  the  peacock's  train  ; 

It  hath  its  station  in  the  stars;  its  slaves 
In  lightning,  wind,  and  rain. 

Out  of  the  dark  it  wrought  the  heart  of  man, 
Out  of  dull  shells  the  pheasant's  pencilled  neck; 

Ever  at  toil  it  brings  to  loveliness 
All  ancient  wrath  and  wreck. 

It  spread eth  forth  for  flight  the  eagle's  wings 
What  time  she  beareth  home  her  prey ;  it  sends 

The  she  wolf  to  her  cubs  ;  for  unloved  things 
It  findeth  food  and  friends- 


THE  RANGE  OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE.   253 

The  ordered  music  of  the  marching  orbs  « 

It  makes  in  viewless  canopy  of  sky  ; 
In  deep  abyss  of  earth  it  hides  up  gold, 

Sards,  sapphires,  lazuli. 

It  slayeth  and  it  saveth,  nowise  moved 

Except  unto  the  working  out  of  doom  ; 
Its  threads  are  Love  \\w\  Life;  and  Death  and  Pain 

The  shuttles  of  its  loom. 

It  maketh  and  unmaketh,  mending  all, 
What  it  hath  wrought  is  better  than  had  been ; 

Slow  grows  the  splendid  pattern  that  it  plans 
Its  wistful  hands  between." 

Man,  more  nobly  designed  than  any  of  his  earthly  predecessors, 
and  placed  at  the  head  of  the  inarch  of  life,  as  we  know  it,  grows 
to  his  perfectness  less  swiftly  than  those  collateral  projects  of 
Nature.  It  is,  meanwhile,  a  sufficient  mark  of  the  rudimentary  con- 
ditions under  which  we  all  yet  dwell  that  nations  speak  different 
languages  and  that  science  should  to-day  devote  so  much  of  her 
labour  to  deadly  engines  of  war.  But  he  who  has  drawn  the  true 
lessons  of  this  Victorian  Era  knows  well  what  useful  virtues  have 
sprung,  and  still  spring,  from  the  temper  of  the  warrior,  and  how 
necessary  war  still  is  to  protect  peace  and  right.  Indeed,  if  on  a 
former  occasion  I  have  taken  leave  to  praise  the  sweetness  and 
grace  of  your  popular  manners,  let  me  be  bold  now  also,  gentlemen 
of  Japan,  to  bid  you  preserve  against  the  temptations  that  are 
current — the  high  courage,  the  dauntless  patriotism,  the  dread  of 
disgrace,  and  the  love  of  honour,  of  which  I  find  in  your  history 
a  hundred  noble  examples.  Bear  with  me  while  I  add  one  word 
about  the  relation  which  all  this  seems  to  have  to  your  own  annals. 
On  that  previous  occasion,  when  I  had  the  pleasure  of  speaking 
to  another  audience  of  your  countrymen,  I  dwelt  upon  the  charms 
of  your  beautiful  land  and  the  graces  of  its  popular  manners. 
Looking  at  these  things,  not  with  the  accustomed  eye  of  an  old 
acquaintance,  I  see  them  in  their  contrast  and  novelty,  and  the 
impression  they  make  on  me  is  all  the  more  vivid.  II',  as  a 
stranger,  I  may  be  pardoned  the  impertinence  of  offering  a  defi 
nition,  I  should  sav  that  yours  is  a  civilisation  which  has  grown 


254  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

up  in  the  placid  atmosphere  of  secluded  Asiatic  life,  developing 
fair  features  that  to  us,  dwellers  amid  the  crash  and  turmoil  of 
competing  nations,  present  an  aspect  of  refreshing  restfulness 
and  content,  We  pray  that  you  may  be  able  to  preserve  those 
features,  harmonising  so  well  with  your  exquisite  surroundings. 
But  in  the  busier  world  of  the  West,  from  forth  the  keenness  of 
rival  intelligences  and  the  emulation  of  vying  races,  there  has 
been  evolved  another  and  not  less  valuable  civilisation,  one  of 
active  science  and  of  ceaseless  industry.  Your  story  during  the 
past  twenty  years  show  that  you  appreciate  the  privilege  of  being- 
introduced  to  that  foreign  civilisation,  and  that  you  understand 
the  necessity  of  judiciously  engrafting  it  upon  your  own.  I  have 
ventured  therefore  to  tell  you  something  about  its  intellectual 
side ;  about  the  vast  vistas  of  knowledge  which  it  has  exposed, 
and  the  grand  conceptions  it  suggests  of  the  destiny  of  humanity. 
You  have  now  to  take  a  high  place  in  a  busy  world  where  this 
civilisation  of  science  and  industry  counts  for  almost  everything ; 
and  the  old  civilisation  of  grace  and  refinement,  that  which  here 
"  draws  the  last  spirit  of  the  Age  of  Gold,"  counts — I  grieve 
to  say — for  comparatively  little.  Do  not,  I  beg  of  you,  think 
that  because  superficial  observers  like  myself  speak  to  you  with 
enthusiastic  delight  of  your  ingrained  courtliness,  your  graceful 
speech,  and  your  gentle  tolerance,  we  underrate  by  any  such 
praise  the  solid  qualities  which  makes  nations  great — qualities 
which  those  who  know  you  say  you  possess,  and  which  your 
intercourse  with  Europe  and  America  now  gives  you  an  oppor- 
tunity of  displaying.  If  you  are  compelled  to  lose  something  of 
your  old  Japan  in  this  crisis,  the  sacrifice  must  be  regarded  as 
inevitable  for  the  sake  of  the  new  Japan.  But  I  cherish  the  hope 
that  your  path  of  progress  will  never  lead  you  entirely  out  of  sight 
of  your  own  peculiar  refinements,  and  that  the  primary  duty  of 
national  self-assertion  will  never  finally  efface  that  which  is  so 
special  and  so  precious  in  your  own  charming  civilisation. 

And  now  I  must  speak  a  little  of  Literature,  my  own  special 
department,  but  chiefly  to  tell  you  with  what  reasonable  belief 
the  Englishman  of  the  Victorian  Era  anticipates  that  what  he 
fondly  calls  the  "  Queen's  English  "  must  eventually  spread  as 


THE  RANGE  OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE.    255 

the  accepted  and  common  tongue  over  the  civilised  globe.  I 
put  forward  this  opinion  with  some  regret,  as  well  as  with  a 
natural  patriotism,  because  I  know  and  love  the  "  world-hooks" 
of*  France,  Italy,  and  Spain,  and  take  delight  in  the  ancient 
literary  riches  of  Greece,  Rome,  India,  Persia,  and  Arabia;  while 
I  cannot  pretend  that  my  mother  tongue  is  as  musical  as  ( 'as- 
tilian  or  Tuscan,  as  graceful  as  Persian,  or  as  perfect  in  it> 
grammar  as  Sanskrit.  But  it  is  supremely  wealthy  in  master- 
pieces of  thought,  fancy,  and  research  ;  it  has  been  consecrated 
and  immortalised  by  the  transcendent  genius  of  Shakespeare,  the 
greatest  poet  the  world  has  ever  seen  ;  and  it  is  the  speech  to- 
day, remember,  of  all  the  powerful,  intelligent,  and  ever-increasing 
American  people,  as  well  as  of  the  Central  Islands  and  the 
Colonies  of  that  British  Empire,  the  resources  of  which  are  at 
present  so  vast,  the  strength  so  inexhaustible,  the  wealth  so 
boundless,  and  the  national  spirit  so  indomitable,  that  I  should 
not  dare  to  speak  of  them  as  I  must  speak,  if  it  were  not  that 
the  constant  policy  of  England  is  peace,  and  her  chief  desire 
here  and  everywhere  to  win  and  keep  the  friendship  of  other 
nations.  I  am  rejoiced,  therefore,  to  notice  how  many  Japanese 
gentlemen  present  to-day  can  follow,  with  as  much  intelligence 
as  patience,  my  superficial  observations,  which  I  will  now  hasten 
to  terminate,  only  adding  that  there  is  no  treasure  house1  of  ait. 
sciesce,  or  literature  which  the  knowledge  of  the  English  lan- 
guage will  not  unlock  for  you. 

Why,  then,  have  I  told  you,  gentlemen,  or  endeavoured  to 
tell  you,  in  this  capital  city  of  Japan,  how  an  educated  English- 
man of  the  Victorian  Age  looks  round  the  horizons  of  the  scien- 
tific and  philosophic  departments  laid  open  to  him  by  better 
minds,  and  returns  to  his  own  studies  glad  of  the  present,  and 
confident  in  the  future?  Why  have  I  tried  to  show  to  you  the 
Western  scholar  reflecting  upon  that  newly  revealed  boundless- 
ness of  the  starry  universe  ;  those  subtle  secrets  of  the  microscope  : 
the  chemist's  brilliant  analysis  of  Nature's  atomic  architecture: 
the  electrician's  magic,  utilised  everywhere,  but  nowhere  as  yet 
understood  ;  the  large  generalisations  of  Darwin  ;  the  settled  reign 
of  order  and  of  law,  seen  even  among  such  lowlv  communities 


256  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

as  those  of  the  ants  and  the  bees ;  and  the  enchanted  world 
of  botany,  where  the  flowers,  for  special  reasons  of  their  own, 
put  in  practice  a  thousand  exquisite  stratagems  in  order  to  grow 
yearly  more  beautiful !  It  is  partly  because  these  imperfect 
sentences  express  my  own  established  persuasion  of  the  divine 
purpose  manifest  for  all  of  us  alike  in  every  corner  of  the  world, 
and  partly  because  this  fair  and  civilised  and  gentle  land  is 
already  in  possession  not  only  of  the  spirit  to  appreciate  the  pur- 
port of  such  words,  but  has  furthermore  inherited  special  and 
lofty  ideas  from  the  neighbouring  East  to  which  these  things 
belong,  and  by  which  they  may  be  vastly  illuminated.  I  have 
often  said,  and  I  shall  say  again  and  again,  that  between  Bud- 
dhism and  modern  science  there  exists  a  close  intellectual  bond. 
When  Tyndall  tells  us  of  sounds  we  cannot  hear ;  and  Norman 
Lockyer  of  colours  we  cannot  see ;  when  Sir  William  Thomson 
and  Professor  Sylvester  push  mathematical  investigation  to  re- 
gions almost  beyond  the  Calculus,  and  others,  still  bolder,  imag- 
ine and  try  to  grapple  with,  though  they  cannot  actually  grasp,  a 
space  of  four  dimensions,  what  is  all  this  except  the  Buddhist 
Maya,  a  practical  recognition  of  the  illusions  of  the  senses  ?  And 
when  Darwin  shows  us  life  passing  onward  and  upward  through 
a  series  of  constantly  improving  forms  towards  the  Better  and 
the  Best,  each  individual  starting  in  new  existence  with  the 
records  of  bygone  good  and  evil  stamped  deep  and  ineflaceably 
from  the  old  ones,  what  is  this  again  but  the  Buddhist  doctrine 
of  Dharma  and  of  Kanna1!  And  when  the  Victorian  poet  and 
preacher  and  moralist  rightly  discern  and  worthily  teach,  as  the 
last  and  truest  wisdom,  that  Justice,  Duty,  and  Right  control 
events,  and  that  the  eternal  Equity  and  Compassion  of  the  uni- 
verse overlooks  and  forgives  no  wrong  and  no  disobedience,  but 
also  neglects  and  forgets  no  good  deed  or  word  or  thought,  what 
is  this  except  the  teaching  of  the  Buddha?  Einally,  if  we  gather 
up  all  the  results  of  modern  research,  and  look  away  from  the 
best  literature  to  the  largest  discovery  in  physics  and  the  latest 
word  in  biology,  what  is  the  conclusion — the  high  and  joyous  con- 
clusion— forced  upon  the  mind,  except  that  which  renders  true 
Buddhism  so  glad  and  hopeful  ?     Surely  it  is  that  the  Descent  of 


THE  RANGE  OE  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE.    257 

man  from  low  beginnings  implies  his  Ascent  to  supreme  and 
glorious  developments;  that  "the  Conservation  of  Matter  and 
Energy,"  a  fact  absolutely  demonstrated,  points  to  the  kindred 
fact  of  the  conservation  and  continuity  of  all  Life,  whereof  matter 
is  but  the  apparent  vehicle  and  expression  ;  that  death  is  probably 
nothing  but  a  passage  and  a  promotion  ;  that  the  destiny  of  man 
has  been,  and  must  be,  and  will  be  worked  out  by  himself  under 
eternal  and  benign  laws  which  never  vary  and  never  mislead  ; 
and  that  for  every  living  creature  the  path  thus  lies  open,  In- 
compliance, by  effort,  by  insight,  by  aspiration,  by  goodwill,  by 
right  action,  and  by  loving  service,  to  that  which  Buddhists  term 
Nirvana,  and  Ave  Christians  "  the  peace  of  God  that  passeth  all 
understanding." 

At  the  conclusion  of  my  address — too  kindly,  too 
generously  received — there  followed  what  I  must 
crave  leave  to  quote  from  the  local  journal.  "  It 
was  admirably  rendered  into  Japanese  by  Mr.  Basil 
Hall  Chamberlain,  whose  wonderful  command  of 
the  exceedingly  difficult  language. of  the  country  was 
well  exemplified  in  his  graceful  and  felicitous  trans- 
lation. Afterwards  Mr.  Tsuji  read  in  Japanese,  and 
Professor  Isawa  in  English,  an  acknowledgment  of 
the  pleasure  felt  by  the  society,  and  the  honour  con- 
ferred upon  it,  in  receiving  and  hearing  their  guest. 
Mr.  Tsuji  said  that  whatever  successes  attended  the 
society  hereafter  would  always  be  associated  with 
Sir  Edwin's  name,  and  that  he  carried  with  him  the 
best  wishes  and  most  friendly  regards  of  all  the 
members."  And  then  ensued  the  .Japanese  banquet 
in  the  "Hall  of  Clouds,"  amid  the  plum-trees  of 
Ueno ;  a  feast  of  four  or  live  hours,  with  the  sake- 
cups  going  gaily  round,  and  the  little  tnuxtmirx,  like 
butterflies,  flittting  about  with  go-zens  and  sarnie -/is, 


258  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

and  after  that  the  Cha-no-yu  ! — apotheosis  of  tea- 
drinking — a  ceremony  delightful,  mysteriouc,  archaic, 
profound,  which  I  will  attempt  to  describe  and  ex- 
plain hereafter;  for  without  such  experience  every 
tea-drinker  in  the  world  remains  little  aware  of  the 
sublimity,  the  antiquity,  the  grace,  the  art,  and,  I 
had  almost  added,  the  religion  which  may  attach 
to  the  tea-cup. 

Tokio,  Japan,  Dec.  16,  1889. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

SAKE    AND    TEA. 

Ariosto  has,  in  his  great  poem,  a  canto  commencing 
"  Donne  !  e  vol  cKavete  le  donne  in  pregio"  whereby 
he  begs  that  no  lady  will  read  the  severe  reflections 
which  follow  upon  the  foibles  of  her  sex.  I,  on 
the  contrary,  venture  most  respectfully  to  invite 
all  ladies  to  read  this  present  letter,  that  they 
may  know  !.>w  distinguished  is  the  origin  of  the 
tea-cup  and  the  tea-tray,  what  immense  social  and 
historical  effects  their  favourite  beverage  has  pro- 
duced, and  with  how  much  grace  and  ceremony 
the  single  act  of  tea-drinking  may  be,  and  is,  in 
this  gentle  land  of  Japan,  constantly  invested.  For 
my  own  part,  a  perfectly  new  sentiment  has  been 
kindled  in  my  In-east  towards  the  whole  mystery 
of  the  teapot  since  I  had  the  honour  of  being 
entertained  at  the  Cha-?w-yu,  in  the  "Hall  of 
Clouds."  Over  the  spirit  of  every  one  who  arrives 
as  a  stranger  in  Japan,  whether  or  not,  by  habit  or 
by  taste,  a  votary  of  the  tea-leaf,  a  change  in  this 
respect  slowly  and  surely  steals.  The  importance 
and  dignity  of  tea  reveal  themselves  in  an  entirely 
new  light  when  he  finds  a  whole  population  of  some 
forty  millions  concentrated,  so  to  speak,  round  the 


26o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

teapot,  and  all  the  dwelling-houses,  all  the  habits, 
all  the  tastes,  the  very  language,  the  meals,  the 
diurnal  duties  and  associations  of  town  and  country 
folk  alike,  circling,  as  it  were,  about  the  tiny  cup. 
Insensibly  you  also  fall  into  the  gentle  passion. 
You  learn  on  your  road  while  journeying,  or  when 
arriving  at  its  end,  or  in  entering  a  friend's  house, 
or  while  shopping  in  the  "  Ginza,"  to  expect  and  to 
accept  with  pleasure  the  proffered  draught  of  pale 
yellow,  fragrant  liquid ;  which  at  first  you  only  tole- 
rate, appearing  as  it  does  without  milk  or  sugar, 
but  afterwards  begin  to  like,  and  lastly  to  find 
indispensable.  Insensibly  the  little  porcelain  cup 
becomes  pleasantly  linked  in  the  mind  with  the 
snow-pure  mats,  the  pretty,  prostrate  musumes,  the 
spotless  joinery  of  the  lowly  walls,  the  exquisite 
proprieties  of  the  latticed  shojis,  adding  to  all  these 
a  charm,  a  refinement,  a  delicate  sobriety  and  dis- 
tinguished simplicity  found  alike  amid  high  and 
low,  emanating,  as  it  were,  from  the  inner  spirit 
of  the  glossy  green  leaf  and  silvery  blossom  of 
the  tea-plant — in  one  word,  belonging  essentially  to 
and  half  constituting  beautiful,  wonderful,  quiet, 
and  sweet  Japan. 

All  this  arises  from  the  entertainment  with  which 
I  was  honoured,  as  mentioned  in  my  last  chapter, 
wherein  I  gave  you  part  of  my  address  before  the 
University,  and  mentioned  the  Japanese  banquet  in 
the  "  Hall  of  Clouds  "  and  the  Cha-no-yu  (or  "  Tea 
of  Honour")  which  followed  it  for  myself  and  a 
select  few.  Dinners  in  the  native  fashion  have 
now  become   so  familiar,  by  my  happy  fortune  in 


lilllM.IM.    >.\KK 


SAKE   AND    TEA.  261 

making  friends  among  the  native  gentlemen,  that  1 
am  conscious  of  having  lost  those  first  impressions 
which  enable  one  to  paint  accurately  a  novel  scene. 
But  I  have  not  lost  my  early  admiration  of  them, 
and  still  continue  to  regard  a  well-appointed  and 
properly-served  Japanese  dinner  as  one  of  the  most 
elegant  and  agreeable,  as  well  as  satisfying,  forms 
of  "  dining-out "  which  the  genius  of  hospitality 
ever  invented.  Like  the  dwellings,  the  apartments, 
and  the  appointments  of  Japan,  one  of  these  enter- 
tainments closely  resembles  another  in  the  methods 
and  the  menus.  I  sate — or  rather  kneeled — lately 
at  a  large  banquet  given  by  Mr.  Okura,  a  very 
wealthy  merchant,  at  his  country  seat  in  Mukojima, 
a  suburb  of  Tokio.  The  ride  thither  took  us  clear 
through  the  vast  city  into  a  rural  quarter  upon  the 
bank  of  the  chief  river.  The  guests,  including 
many  of  the  present  Ministers  of  the  Emperor's 
Cabinet,  assembled  first  of  all  in  a  smoking  pavilion, 
overlooking  the  stream,  richly  adorned  with  carvings 
and  chased  brass  ornaments,  and  warmed  by  a  huge 
hibachi,  or  fire-box.  Here  we  were  served  by 
kneeling  musumes  with  tea,  vermouths,  and  little 
balls  of  sweetened  millet;  and  then  proceeded 
through  many  passages  glistening  with  polished 
pine  and  clierrywood  to  the  shuko-do,  or  dining- 
chamber.  Sitting  here  on  little  square  cushions — 
every  guest  having  his  fire-box  beside  him — a  girl 
in  flowing  embroidered  robes  and  bright  satin  obi, 
appears  before  each,  and  places  the  first  tray  within 
his  reach.  There  will  be  upon  it  a  little  lacquered 
bowl  of  soup,  a  saucer   of  legumes,  a   tiny   dish   of 


262  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

cutlet,  or  ragout,  a  bowl  of  snowy  boiled  rice,  a 
sake-cup,  and  a  pair  of  new  chopsticks.  The  guest 
of  the  evening  gives  the  signal  to  start  by  begin- 
ning to  wield  these  latter,  and  then  all  is  festivity 
and  joyous  chat  sans  gene.  Your  pretty  musume, 
having  well  started  you,  kneels  in  front  of  your 
tray,  armed  with  a  porcelain  flask  of  rice-wine, 
warmed ;  and  if  she  can  help  it  she  will  not  allow 
your  little  red  saucer  to  remain  unbrimmed. 

My  fortunate  cushion  was  placed  between  the 
American  Minister's  and  that  of  Count  Saigon,  the 
President  of  the  Imperial  Marine  Department,  whose 
brother  headed  the  Satsuma  rebellion  many  years 
ago  and  lost  his  head.  The  Count  was  loyal,  and 
has  risen  to  high  office — a  frank,  hearty,  English- 
looking  statesman,  whose  merry  conversation  made 
one  often  neglect  the  choice  dishes  which  followed 
the  first  service  in  lavish  variety.  At  perhaps  the 
third  tray — when  the  second  soup  and  the  thin 
slices  of  raw  fish,  the  daikon  and  the  vermicelli  with 
almonds,  have  appeared,  and  many  a  cup  of  sake 
has  warmed  the  "  honourable  insides "  of  the  con- 
vives— the  sound  is  heard,  behind  the  screen  at 
the  end  of  the  room,  of  the  samisen  and  the  koto, 
and,  being  pushed  back,  it  reveals  the  musicians 
and  the  dancers.  These  last — the  Geishas — wear 
always  very  gay  apparel,  and  are  extremely  well 
trained  in  their  graceful  odori.  But  you  would 
be  wrong  to  think  that  any  Japanese  woman  may 
put  on  the  splendid  and  showy  kimonos  borne  by 
the  Maiko.  There  is  a  very  strict  social  rule  in 
Japan  that  after  the  twenty-first  year  of  her  age 


SAKE   AND    TEA.  263 

a  girl  must  no  longer  don  bright  colours  ;  she  then 
assumes  the  sober  tints  of  grey,  dark-blue,  dove- 
colour,  and  brown;  so  that,  practically,  only  the 
quite  young  female  people  assume  the  gorgeous 
garments  in  question.  When  the  Geishas  have 
finished  one  or  two  well-known  dances,  and  have 
been  applauded  with  words  of  approval  and  clapping 
of  hands,  one  comes  back  to  the  little  trays,  now 
encircling  each  guest  as  boats  surround  a  ship  in 
harbour,  and  plays  again  with  the  chopsticks  among 
the  entremets,  the  cakes,  the  candied  fruits,  and 
perfumed  'k  kick-shaws  "  which  complete  the  service. 
Or  one  lights  a  cigarette,  or  kiseru ;  or  rises  from 
his  cushion  to  go,  first  to  the  host,  and  afterwards 
to  every  well-known  friend  in  the  circle,  kneel- 
ing down  before  him,  and  saying,  Ippai  Kudasai, 
"  Permit  me  to  drink  with  you  in  my  own  cup." 
The  person  thus  invited  rinses  his  sake-cup  in 
the  hot-water  bowl,  and  hands  it  to  you  ;  you  raise 
it  to  your  forehead,  and  presenting  it  to  the  mmunii' 
to  be  filled,  quaff  it,  rinse  it  anew,  and  hand  it 
to  your  friend,  who  lifts  it  to  his  head,  has  it  re- 
plenished, and  drinks,  bowing  low,  adding  such  a 
sentence  as  ()  mr  ni  kakaru  kara  taksaii  0  tanoxhiini 
(jozaimas — i.  c,  "I  am  very  happy  to  have  hung  in 
your  honourable  eyes."  By  this  time  the  conversa- 
tion has  grown  animated;  the  companions  of  the 
banquet  are  gathered  in  friendly  groups,  the  gaily 
clad  muxiiini's  Hit  about  with  vases  of  rice-wine, 
or  converse  lightly  and  prettily  with  the  guests, 
who  may  offer  them  a  cup  of  sake,  and  flirt  a 
little.      If  you   have   known    how   to  select    the  most 


264  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

satisfactory  dishes,  and  have  not  made  the  mistake 
of  swallowing  whole  what  looked  like  a  sugared 
chestnut,  and  turned  out,  too  late,  to  be  a  lump  of 
fiery  mustard,  cayenne,  and  soy,  the  entertainment 
has  abundantly  satisfied  the  appetite,  besides  grati- 
fying the  sight,  the  hearing,  and  the  spirit  generally. 
When,  amid  a  buzz  of  joyous  farewell  talk,  your 
musume  wraps  you  in  your  fur  coat,  and,  while 
you  slip  again  into  your  shoes  on  the  threshold, 
knocks  her  pretty  brow  upon  the  matting,  mur- 
muring, Sayonara  !  mata  o  ide  nasare  ("  Good-bye  ! 
be  pleased  to  come  again"),  you  enter  your  jinri- 
kisha  and  roll  off  through  the  streets  glittering  with 
paper  lanterns  and  lively  with  thousands  of  clattering 
feet,  repeating  to  yourself,  "  Fate  cannot  harm  me. 
I  have  dined  to-day  !  " 

Such  was,  in  slightest  outline,  our  dinner  at 
Mukqjima,  where  I  left  the  Minister  of  Marine 
deep  in  a  gay  discussion  with  two  Geishas  and  a 
musume,  as  to  the  proper  words  of  a  celebrated 
song.  The  banquet  at  the  "  Hall  of  Clouds  "  being 
in  connection  with  the  University,  and  largely 
attended  by  imperial  professors,  wore  somewhat 
graver  aspects,  and  there  were  present,  besides, 
some  distinguished  Buddhist  abbots,  as  well  as  the 
youthful  head  of  one  of  their  sects.  The  chief 
priest,  by  the  way,  though  he  went  through  the 
friendly  ceremony  of  drinking  from  my  cup,  raised 
it  simply  to  his  forehead  ;  either  he  did  not  touch 
what  the  Buddha  forbade,  or  would  not  let  me 
see  him  do  it.  There  were  also  no  dancing  and 
no   music,   for   the    Cha-no-yu   was   to   follow,   and 


SAKE   AND   TEA.  265 

nothing  in  the  least  frivolous  must  mingle  with 
that.  Duly,  when  the  dinner  was  finished,  the 
chief  guests,  six  or  seven  in  number  out  of  the 
forty  or  fifty  present,  repaired  to  the  little  room 
set  apart  for  the  ceremony.  Approaching  its 
entrance  we  all  washed  our  hands  with  water 
from  a  small  wooden  ladle,  out  of  a  white  wooden 
tub.  Above  the  door  were  written  characters  which 
meant  "  Hospitality,  courtesy,  purity,  tranquillity  !  " 
We  passed  into  a  tiny  apartment,  of  spotless  ap- 
pearance, provided  with  mats,  cushions,  an  antique 
tea  equipage,  a  glowing  hearth  sunk  in  the  floor, 
and  one  hanging  picture,  very  old,  which  we  were 
directed  to  admire  and  criticise.  Our  places  are 
prescribed  round  the  floor,  with  careful  politeness, 
by  the  aged  servitor.  Sitting  thus  quietly  but 
gaily  in  the  little  snow-clean  alcove,  the  talk  turns 
upon  the  origin  of  the  Cha-no-yu,  and  what  it 
has  done,  not  only  for  Japanese  art,  manners,  and 
national  life,  but  if  anybody  reflects  rightly,  for  the 
whole  civilised  world.  It  is  really  to  Buddhism 
that  civilisation  owes  the  tea-leaf,  and  its  immense 
place  at  the  present  day  in  the  affections  and  the 
commerce  of  mankind.  The  plant  is  indigenous 
to  Japan,  but  the  "calm  brethren  of  the  yellow 
robe  "  brought  with  them  into  Japan,  along  with 
their  gentle  religion,  the  art  of  using  it.  Up  to 
the  time  of  our  Wars  of  the  Roses  tea  in  Japan 
was  still  so  rare  that  soldiers  received  small  pots 
of  it  as  gifts  of  honour,  and  infused  it  in  special 
feasts  among  their  friends  as  a  precious  beverage. 
The    great     Regent     Yoshi-tsune,    retiring    from 


266  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

power,  personally  established  its  universal  use  in 
Japan,  and  indirectly  gave,  by  his  far  off  foresight 
and  refined  taste,  five  o'clock  tea  to  the  Duchess 
in  Bclgravia ;  and  also  to  the  student,  the  washer- 
' woman  and  the  sempstress  "the  cup  that  cheers." 
He  and  his  friend  Shuko,  a  Buddhist  priest,  in- 
vented the  tea  pavillion,  and  drew  up  the  first  rules 
of  the  Cha-no-yu.  But  though  these  great  minds 
so  early  popularised  tea-drinking  in  Japan,  and 
doubtless  intended  to  simplify  it,  the  fashion  long 
remained  aristocratic.  The  nobles  were  wont  to 
sit  over  their  tea-cups  gambling  for  gilded  armour, 
and  even  for  precious  sword-blades,  which  the 
winner  would  often  lightly  give  away  to  the  pretty 
flowery-robed  Geishas,  who  danced,  sang,  and 
waited  for  them.  It  was  reserved  for  the  low-born 
but  powerful  and  accomplished  Taikoon,  Hideyoshi, 
"  the  Augustus  of  Japanese  History,"  to  stamp  the 
cult  of  the  tea-leaf  with  that  enduring  grace,  sim- 
plicity, and  charm  which  have  made  tea-drinking 
the  central  act  of  Japanese  life,  and  even  built  all 
their  houses  and  apartments  on  the  same  undeviat- 
ing  pattern.  Hideyoshi  had  for  his  Mecoenas  Sen- 
no-rikiu,  another  Buddhist  priest,  and  the  two 
together  reformed  the  Cha-Seki  by  making  it  before 
all  things  intensely  simple.  Ostentation  was  ostra- 
cised. 

The  four  great  qualities  which  the  Seikasha 
— the  Tea-Drinker — was  to  celebrate  and  cultivate 
over  the  sacred  cup  were  hospitality,  courtesy, 
purity,  and  tranquillity.  The  apartment  must  be 
plain,  but  elegant,  with   spotless   mats   and   simple 


SAKE   AND    TEA.  267 

joinery ;  the  utensils  must  be  uncostly,  but  ex- 
quisite in  shape  and  fitness.  Temperance  must 
be  absolute ;  if  food  and  wine  mingled  with  the 
little  feast  nobody  must  exceed  one  bowl  of  rice 
and  three  saucers  of  sake.  Nor  was  it  solely  for 
love  of  grace  and  the  four  chief  virtues  of  the 
tea-room,  Ka-kei-sei-jaku,  that  the  famous  Taikoon 
inaugurated  the  cult  of  the  tea-leaf.  His  great 
mind  saw  that  if  he  could  give  Japan  a  national 
and  tranquil  habit,  easy  of  practice  for  the  poor 
and  attractive  to  the  rich,  he  would  do  much  to 
sheath  the  sword  and  humanise  his  people ;  and 
so  it  has  turned  out.  Never,  in  truth,  had  a 
statesman's  subtle  device  such  grand  success.  The 
tea-cup,  as  I  have  said,  is  to-day  the  central  fact 
of  this  fair  and  gentle  land.  It  decides  the 
architecture,  binds  together  the  societies,  refreshes 
the  fatigue,  and  rewards  the  day's  work  of  high 
and  low  in  Japan.  The  perspiring  jinrikisha  mar. 
is  satisfied  with  the  warm  infusion ;  the  Minister 
and  the  Mikado  himself  are  only  happy  when  the 
"  honourable  tea "  exhales  its  delicate  fragrance 
from  the  hands  of  the  kneeling  musumi'.  And 
there  are  little  gracious  ceremonies  even  about  the 
most  ordinary  tea-drinking  in  humblest  houses 
which  everywhere  elevate  it  above  a  mere  beve- 
rage. Good  manners  in  Japan  prescribe  a  sort 
of  soft  solemnity  whenever  the  little  cup  is  being 
filled,  and  no  hut  is  so  lowly  but  its  kettle,  its 
teapot,  and  its  tea  equipage  display  something 
about  them  of  distinction,  taste,  and  the  love  of 
a  chaste  and  perfect  art. 


268  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

But  the  Cha-no-yu,  as  Hideyoshi  and  Sen-no- 
rikiu  settled  it  for  ever,  carries  these  ceremonials 
to  a  grave  perfection.  To  be  quite  orthodox  the 
tea-room  must  be  very  small,  one  of  but  four  and 
a  half  mats,  roofed  if  possible  with  a  single  finely 
grained  plank,  or  else  thatched  with  bamboo  grass. 
The  few  honoured  guests  should  be  called  to  the 
pavilion  by  wooden  clappers,  washing  their  hands 
first  in  pure  water.  No  discontented  person  must 
be  present,  nor  any  scandal,  or  flattery,  or  unkind 
words  be  heard.  The  host  himself  should  mend  the 
fire,  light  the  incense,  brush  the  mats,  fill  the  white- 
pine  ewer,  and  lay  the  ladle  of  red-pine ;  as  well  as 
see  that  the  single  picture  is  hung  and  the  single 
flower-pot  fairly  set  in  its  place.  The  tea  should 
be  of  the  finest  green  powder,  from  a  beautiful  but 
common  little  jar;  placed  in  a  cup  of  ancient  design 
holding,  perhaps,  half  a  pint.  The  "  honourable  " 
hot  water  is  poured  upon  it,  and  then  stirred  in  with 
a  small  bamboo  whisk,  which  article  itself,  like  the 
tiny  spoon  of  the  same  material  used  for  taking  out 
the  tea  powder,  must  be  of  a  certain  form,  and,  if 
possible,  ancient,  and  famous  for  its  artistic  origin. 

Even  about  the  boiling  of  the  water  there  is 
orthodox  tradition,  there  is  solemnity,  I  had  almost 
said  there  is  religion.  The  sumi  in  the  brazier  must 
be  piled  up  in  the  outline  of  a  glowing  Fuji-San. 
The  kettle  of  beaten  iron  must  have  no  touch  of 
modern  vulgarity  in  its  shape,  the  water  must  be 
drawn  from  the  purest  source,  and — at  the  moment 
of  use — in  the  third  state  of  boiling.  The  first  state 
is  known    by  its  low  murmuring,  and    the  appear- 


SAKE  AND   TEA.  269 

ance  on  the  surface  of  the  large  slow  bubbles  dis- 
tinguished  as  "  fish  eyes,"  gyo-moku ;  the  second 
is  when  steam  comes  with  quickly  rising  foam  ;  the 
third  is  when  the  steam  disappears  in  a  tranquil, 
steady  simmer,  and  the  fluid  is  now  "  honourable 
old  hot  water."  This  is  the  propitious  moment  for 
the  admixture,  which  being  compounded  appears 
in  the  guise  of  a  light-green  frothy  compound,  deli- 
cately fragrant  and  invigoratingly  hot,  contained 
in  the  antique  cup,  which,  neatly  folded  in  a  fair 
cloth,  should  be  handed  now  to  the  principal  guest. 
Drinking  reverently  from  it,  he  should  tenderly 
wipe  the  rim  at  the  spot  where  he  has  quaffed,  but 
the  next  guest  must  drink  at  the  very  same  place, 
for  such  is  the  "  Kiss  of  brotherhood,"  in  harmony 
with  the  friendly  inspirations  of  this  ceremony. 
The  last  guest  must  be  heedful  to  drain  the  bowl 
to  its  dregs ;  then  he  passes  it  round  to  be  examined, 
criticised,  and  made  the  subject  of  pleasant  talk 
about  the  old  days,  the  canons  of  true  art  in 
pottery,  or  any  other  topic  lightly  arising  from  the 
graceful  moment,  as  the  tender  fragrance  of  the  tea- 
leaf  wafts  itself  about  the  air  of  the  little  spotless 
chamber  and  among  the  kneeling,  happy,  tranquil 
companions  of  the  occasion. 

At  a  glance  it  will  be  seen  how  imperiously  these 
elegant  ceremonies,  once  established  and  received, 
have  dictated  to  Japan  the  pure  simplicity  of  her 
ceramic  and  metal  work,  and  how  they  have  passed 
down  into  all  ranks  of  the  people,  constituting  a 
standard  of  sweet  and  simple  manners  and  of 
high-bred  tastes  which  they  were  quicker  to  accept 


2yo  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

than  any  other  nation.  Perhaps  nowhere  except 
in  Japan  would  it  have  been  possible  even  for  the 
great  Hideyoshi  and  the  astute  Sen-no-rikiu  to  have 
indoctrinated  a  whole  people  with  so  pure  and  re- 
fined a  passion.  But  the  commonest  Japanese  have 
this  charming  tendency  to  a  delicate  sobriety  of 
appetite  and  taste;  they  love  the  touch  of  art  which 
elevates,  the  glimpse  of  grace  which  dignifies. 
They  have  the  nature  rather  of  birds  or  butterflies 
than  of  ordinary  human  beings,  and  when  you  send 
out  to  your  Kurumaya  a  cup  of  tea  and  a  saucer 
of  boiled  rice,  and  hear  afterwards  his  grateful 
words,  you  wonder  whether  he  is  of  the  same  race 
as  that  which  you  left  quaffing  half-and-half  and 
eating  rump-steaks  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames. 
Of  course  the  austere  etiquette  of  the  Cha-no-yii 
is  special ;  but  its  spirit,  as  the  central  ceremony  of 
tea-drinking,  has  palpably  passed  through  all  Japan, 
where  everything  begins  and  ends  with  the  tetsub'ui 
and  the  tea-cup.  Nor  is  it  too  much  to  declare 
that  to  Buddhism,  which  brought  in  her  religious 
ideas,  and  the  tea-leaf,  and  to  Hideyoshi,  who  taught 
her  how  to  honour,  enjoy,  and  infuse  it,  is  due  much, 
if  not  most,  of  the  existing  aspect  of  social  and  civic 
Japan. 

Tokio,  Japan,  Dec.  19,  1889. 


I.K.H'r    KKFKKSIIMKNT. 


CHAPTER   XX. 


AT    HOME. 


If  some  of  those  countless  friends  at  home  of 
whom  the  Christmas  season  brings  such  warm  re- 
membrances, could  be  transported  hither  on  the 
magic  carpet  of  Asiatic  fiction  it  would  puzzle  them 
at  first  to  know  to  what  land  they  had  been  conveyed. 
This  drawing-room  where  I  write,  with  walls  of  gilt 
paper  and  soft  Oriental  carpets,  easy-chairs  in  cosy 
corners,  and  the  numberless  little  signs  of  feminine 
taste  and  decoration  imparted  by  a  lady's  hand,  might 
make  the  house  seem  at  first  like  some  Indian  bunga- 
low. But  in  the  middle  of  the  apartment  rises  a 
pillar  of  dark  cherry  wood,  erected  there  just  as  it 
was  felled,  except  for  a  little  polish  and  some  care- 
less chisel  marks,  supporting  a  ceiling  of  unpainted 
joinery,  delicately  finished,  but  left  in  the  original 
beauty  of  the  fir-wood.  Moreover,  two  of  the  four 
walls  of  the  pretty  and  pleasant  room  are  composed 
of  framed  glass  through  which  one  looks  over  a 
charming  garden,  where  artificial  mounds,  tiny 
pools,  and  winding  pathways  are  overhung  by  the 
bamboo  and  the  palm,  which  might  appeal'  Indian 
enough,  but  for  being  interspersed  with  camellias, 
camphor-laurels,   and  pine  trees.      India,   therefore, 


272  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

it  could  not  be;  but  yet,  if  still  uncertain  and 
puzzled,  the  imaginary  friend  should  proceed  to 
lightly  clap  together  his  hands  (our  way  of  bell- 
ringing  here),  the  mystery  would  be  quickly  solved, 
for  the  gilded  shoji  would  promptly  roll  back  from 
one  or  other  of  the  corners  of  the  chamber,  and  O 
Tori  San,  plumpest  and  most  cheerful  of  Japanese 
waiting-maids,  would  appear  to  the  summons  upon 
her  little  hands  and  knees,  probably  also  on  her 
nose,  with  shining  black  marble  hair,  comely 
girdled  kimono,  little  pigeon  feet  in  cloven  white 
socks,  and  that  ejaculatory  Hi !  hi !  with  which 
she  always  announces  obedience  to  the  behests  of 
her  young  mistress.  Furthermore  the  shoji,  rolling 
aside,  would  disclose  vistas  within  of  white  matted 
floors,  latticed  screens  covered  with  transparent 
paper,  polished  dark  passages  which  no  boot  or 
shoe  profanes,  and  dusky  servants  flitting  about 
in  wide-sleeved  dresses,  besides  jinrikishas  standing 
at  the  door,  and  clogs  and  waraji  lying  on  the  door- 
step ;  in  fact,  the  usual  aspect  and  features  of  a  real 
Japanese  domicile. 

In  truth,  we  are  housed — and  very  pleasantly 
housed  for  some  time  to  come — as  what  may  be 
called  honorary  eitizens  of  this  vast  capital  of 
Japan.  Not  that  you  would  ever  dream,  looking 
through  the  latticed  sides  of  the  dwelling  upon 
the  garden,  that  the  residence  stood  almost  in  the 
very  centre  of  an  enormous  city.  Tokio  is  so  full 
of  green  spaces,  gardens,  and  hills,  that  only  in 
certain  quarters  do  you  see  close-packed  and  densely- 
populated  streets  and  lanes.     Upon  the  eminence  of 


AT  HOME.  273 

Imai-cho,  where  our  abode  is  situated,  the  air  is 
fresh  and  smokeless  as  in  the  farthest  country,  and 
the  view  extends,  over  groups  of  black  and  white 
shops  and  dwellings,  to  many  acclivities,  verdant  and 
pleasant  like  this,  and  crowned,  as  this  is,  with 
agreeable  villas  and  lightly  framed  buildings  sur- 
rounded with  groves  and  pleasure  grounds.  A  run 
in  the  house-jinrikisha  will  take  you  very  quickly 
into  the  midst  of  long  streets  and  lanes  swarming 
with  the  picturesque  population,  and  we  are,  indeed, 
"  near  everything,"  without  any  of  the  drawbacks  of 
a  capital.  At  night  the  neighbourhood  is  as  quiet 
as  the  street  of  a  rural  village,  the  only  sounds 
heard  being  the  amma's  cry  passing  the  gate,  and 
the  echo  of  the  watchman's  wooden  clappers.  The 
atmosphere  is  always  pure  and  clear,  albeit  a  million 
and  a  quarter  of  Japanese  live  between  our  bamboo 
thickets  and  the  sea's  edge,  for  there  are  no  chimneys 
— the  houses  burn  no  fuel  except  the  cleanly  char- 
coal;  and  Fuji-San,  the  queen  of  mountains,  though 
she  is  distant  some  sixty-five  miles,  for  this  reason 
daily  lifts  her  snowy  peak  to  our  view  in  the  west- 
ward region.  It  is  now  midwinter  in  Japan,  and 
not  the  season  of  flowers — moreover,  a  nightly  frost 
binds  the  little  lotus-pool  in  the  garden  with  thick 
ice.  Yet  we  have  hardy  roses  and  camellias  blossom- 
ing round  us,  and  the  rich  variety  of  evergreens, 
mingling  with  the  acclimatised  cycads  and  bamboo, 
furnishes  perpetual  verdure.  In  the  spring  we  shall 
be  embosomed  in  the  pink  and  white  blossoms  of 
the    plum    and    cherry   trees,    which   just    now    are 

bare. 

19 


274 


SEAS  AND  LANDS. 


At  our  garden  gate  stands  a  Shinto  temple, 
especially  famous  for  the  splendour  of  its  double 
cherry  blooms,  the  absence  of  which  is  now  supplied 
by  wreaths  of  dried  leaves  and  festoons  of  white 
paper  suspended  on  the  red  torii,  or  portals,  of  the 
silent  shrine.  If  you  wish  to  plunge  into  the  busy 
bright  life  of  the  city  it  is  but  to  descend  the  hill,  to 
pass  the  jinrikisha  stand  and  the  old  Daimio's  dwell- 


ing, and  then  to  turn  a  corner  by  the  massive  fortress 
wall,  and  you  will  be  among  the  odd  little  shops,  the 
clattering  pattens,  the  mothers  and  sisters  with  the 
babies  on  their  backs,  the  children  kite-flying,  the 
traders  sitting  over  their  glowing  charcoal  braziers; 
the  hawkers  of  fish,  dried  radish,  cakes,  persimmons, 
toys,  pipes,  kites,  and  flags;  the  coolies  with  their 
balanced  loads;  the  blind  old  samisen  players;  the 


AT  HOME.  275 

Buddhist  priests;  the  pretty  musumes  with  hair 
like  blaek  marble  and  pigeon  feet ;  the  impertur- 
bable slit-eyed  babies ;  the  acquaintances  meeting  in 
the  street  and  profusely  bowing  and  saluting ;  the 
Japanese  officers  riding  along,  each  with  his  betto, 
or  groom;  the  flower  pedlars;  the  bullock-men; 
the  bird-dealers ;  the  tea-houses,  the  little  funny 
house  fronts,  and  opened  interiors ;  the  bath-rooms, 
the  temples,  the  stone-yards,  the  basket-works,  the 
gliding  rice-boats,  tout  le  tremblement,  in  fact,  of  the 
wonderful  and  ever-interesting  capital  city  of  Japan. 
To  be  permitted  thus  to  reside  in  the  Japanese 
metropolis  is  not  verv  readily  granted  to  a  foreigner 
who  has  no  official  or  diplomatic  status.  My  prede- 
cessor in  the  tenantcy  was  in  Government  employ, 
and  so  much  goodwill  has  been  shown  to  me  by 
high  Japanese  dignitaries  that  no  difficulty  was 
apprehended  in  the  temporary  succession.  But  the 
Foreign  Office  at  Tokio  is  precise  and  logical,  and 
could  not  consequently  accept  the  theory  of  a  guest 
who  paid  rent.  I  was  therefore  finally  and  obligingly 
appointed  tutor  en  litre  to  the  amiable  family  of 
my  landlord,  who  lives  close  by,  and  that  office  I 
have  the  honour  to  occupy  at  present  upon  ;i 
salary  which  would  be  nominal  if  it  did  not  include 
the  pleasure  of  hearing  my  accomplished  pupils 
often  play  upon  the  scnniaen  and  the  koto.  Upon 
this  basis  we  have  established  excellent  relations, 
and  O  Fuku  San,  with  her  charming  sister,  has  just 
now  called  round  to  bring  my  daughter  some  hagolta 
— battledore  and  shuttlecocks — now  all  the  fashion. 
And    if    the    stipend    of   this    new  appointment    is 


276 


SEAS  AND   LANDS. 


nil,  so,  too,  are  its  responsibilities.  I  revise  the 
MSS.  of  a  Japanese  history  in  its  English  tran- 
lation  for  Chief-Inspector  Asso,  and  he  kindly 
polishes  up  my  Japanese ;  so  that  we  give  just  a 
little  touch  of  actuality  to  the  status  which  enables 


MY    TKACJIEK. 


me  to  be  domiciled  temporarily  as  a  citizen  of 
Tokio.  Even  the  Bishop  of  Japan,  a  dignified 
and  popular  neighbour  in  my  quarter,  resides  there 
only  as  a  schoolmaster,  not    as  a   Christian    prelate. 


AT  HOME.  277 

The  difficulties  which  have  arisen  about  treaty 
revision — very  far  as  yet  from  being  settled — render 
the  Japanese  Government,  it  would  appear,  more 
particular  than  ever. 

For  our  household  staff  we  have  a  cook,  with  his 
wife  and  girl-baby,  a  gardener,  a  jinrikisha-puller, 
or  kuruma-ya,  the  Japanese  maid,  and  my  own  man, 


Mano,  with  his  wife.  The  cook,  named  Xakashima 
Yasuzo,  dresses  in  the  conventional  white  for  his 
official  duties,  but  takes  orders  on  his  knees  and 
forehead  in  a  dark-blue  dress  covered  all  over  witli 


278  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

red-and-white  dragons.  He  is  very  skilful  and 
inventive,  and  can  serve  up  as  good  a  dinner  as 
anybody  needs.  His  accounts,  presented  in  the 
Japanese  kata-kana — rather  puzzling  to  his  young 
English  mistress — are  cast  up  upon  the  native 
soroban,  or  abacus,  which  is  in  universal  use,  and 
seems  never  to  mislead.  It  is  especially  in  dressing 
fish — the  favourite  Japanese  food — that  Nakashima 
is  ingenious,  and,  indeed,  almost  exhaustless ;  but 
he  can  achieve  almost  anything  in  either  European 
or  native  style. 

The  kuruma-ya,  or  jinrikisha  man,  is  styled 
Watanabe  Shuzo,  and  lives  always  at  call  to 
trundle  one  or  other  of  us  from  end  to  end  of 
the  city  with  his  tireless  quick  trot  and  twink- 
ling little  legs.  He  has  just  brought  in  the  special 
suit  of  clothes  presented  to  him  for  the  New 
Year,  of  dark  blue  linsey,  with  white  discs  and 
flying  storks  all  over  it,  and  upon  the  back, 
between  the  shoulder-blades,  a  large  letter  "A" 
embroidered,  the  initial  of  his  owner's  name.  It 
is  pleasant  to  possess,  and  thus  perpetually  to 
command,  a  two-legged'  steed  of  this  sort,  who 
never  shies,  nor  bolts,  nor  stumbles,  and  will  go 
as  readily  fifty  miles  as  five.  The  gardener,  Suzuhi 
Kanzo,  is  a  small  and  silent  Japanese,  irresistibly 
recalling  the  "  Ace  of  Spades  "  of  "  Alice  in  Won- 
derland," as  he  flits  about  with  a  little  hoe,  a  little 
pair  of  shears,  and  a  little  broom,  amid  his  plants 
and  flowers,  or  carries  water  to  the  bath-room, 
which  latter  is  a  very  simple  and  peculiar  apart- 
ment  in  the  Japanese  manner,  with  huge  wooden 


AT  HOME. 


279 


tubs  of  "  honourable  hot  water,"  and  a  grated 
floor.  Among  the  many  nice  characteristics  of 
the  Japanese  is  their  love  of  perpetual  bathing. 
Everybody  who  has  not  private  conveniences  for 
this    purpose  goes   daily  to  a   public  bath — -furo-do 


THE    SISTKU.S. 


— and  parboils  himself  or  herself  in  water  of  a 
temperature  beyond  the  endurance  of  any  European 
skin.     They    are    in    consequence    the    cleanest    of 


28o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

people,  but    make    no    more  of  stripping  to  bathe 
in  common  than  we  of  taking  off  our  gloves. 

Yoshida  Tori,  my  daughter's  maid,  deserves  a 
paragraph  to  herself.  Plum]),  rosy-cheeked,  and 
always  smiling,  she  is  a  personification  of  the  sweet 
temper  of  all  Japanese  damsels  and  of  the  population 
generally.  The  daughter  of  a  mmurcd,  or  well-born 
swordsman,  she  has  learned  admirable  manners,  and 
has  evidently  been  well-educated  ;  but  performs,  all 
the  same,  her  household  duties  as  if  they  were  a 
source  of  positive  delight.  In  bringing  a  message, 
receiving  an  order,  offering  tea  or  cakes,  or  doing 
anything  which  is  not  absolutely  instantaneous,  she 
always  goes  down  on  her  little  knees,  and  often  also 
upon  her  little  nose,  and  never  permits  her  master  or 
mistress  to  enter  or  quit  the  house  without  hastening 
outside  to  kneel  and  bend  low  upon  the  doorstep. 
Twice  a  week  somebody,  with  the  necessary  artistic 
skill,  comes  to  dress  her  black  marble  hair  with 
camellia  oil,  inserting  in  its  glossy  masses  coloured 
puffs  of  silk  and  wool,  and  kanzashis,  or  ornamental 
pins.  These  pins  are  a  great  article  of  trade  in 
every  bazaar,  designed  in  all  sorts  of  shapes  and 
patterns,  and  with  the  gayest  imaginable  ornamenta- 
tion ;  but  the  favourite  mode  is  a  hairpin  of  gold 
and  coral,  or  one  imitating  a  spray  of  cherry-blossom. 
When  O  Tori  San  has  been  projoerly  coiffee,  with  a 
representation  of  Mount  Fuji  rising  in  a  peak  from 
her  small  brow,  and  enormous  shining  puffs  con- 
structed behind  and  before,  she  must  sleep,  like  all 
the  rest  of  her  sex  here,  with  her  head  upon  a 
malcura.     This  is  the  tiny  wooden  pillow,  in  outline 


AT  HOME. 


281 


something  like  an  anvil,  having  rolls  of  paper  on  the 
upper  hollow,  and  two  little  drawers  below,  where 
the  kanzashis  are  deposited  every  night.  Upon  this 
apparently  most  uncomfortable  prop  all  feminine 
Japan  reposes  its  head,  or  neck,  at  sleeping  time  ;  for 


THE   GARDENEU  s    WIFE. 


the  ordinary  pillow  or  bolster  would  make  a  complete 
wreck  of  those  shining  puffs  and  peaks  and  well- 
oiled  bandeaux.  In  the  morning,  while  dusting  and 
sweeping,  O  Tori  San  covers  the  elaborate  structures 
of    her    hair  with   a   blue    and    white  handkerchief. 


282  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

which  is  also  of  universal  use  in  Japan,  the  women 
spreading  it  over  their  heads  like  a  cap  or  bonnet, 
the  men  twisting  and  knotting  it  round  their  shocks 
of  black  bristling  hair.  Wonderful  to  behold,  more- 
over, are  the  obi  which  our  Japanese  Abigail  puts 
on  from  day  to  day ;  gay  and  glittering  folds  of 
liveliest  hue,  so  arranged  as  to  hang  upon  the  small 
of  her  back,  like  a  valise,  or  writing  case,  made  of 
gold  and  flowers.  When  suddenly  summoned  by 
clapping  of  hands,  O  Tori  San,  in  whatever  part  or 
the  house,  utters  a  loud  and  ready  "  Hal  !  "  and  after- 
wards, while  receiving  the  order,  ejaculates  in  quick 
succession,  a  series  of  he  !  he  !  he  !  lie's  !  concluding 
with  a  deep  obeisance,  and  the  word  Kashkomarvm- 
ashta,  "  I  have  assented."  She  is  fond  of  gliding 
into  the  drawing-room,  and  silently  sitting  there 
for  the  sake  of  company,  for  in  this  gentle  land 
the  distance  is  not  great  between  servants  and 
masters. 

Last  night,  while  reading  by  lamplight,  the 
distant  rumble  of  an  earthquake  was  heard  by 
us;  and  before  the  strange  deep  noise  had  well 
gathered  up  into  the  now  too  well-known  thunder 
and  rattle  of  the  dread  jishin,  the  little  Japanese  maid 
had  precipitated  herself  through  the  shoji,  and  was 
on  her  knees  at  the  feet  of  her  young  mistress. 
"The  more  you  know  of  earthquakes,"  she  after- 
wards said,  "  the  less  you  like  to  be  alone  in  one." 
()  Tori  San,  amid  other  duties,  is,  indeed,  one  of  my 
teachers  in  Japanese,  and  whenever  I  come  to  a 
general  sentence  in  the  reading  book  it  is  "  Anone  !  " 
"  The  plum-blossoms    of   Ueno  were    beautiful  last 


AT  JIOMK. 


283 


year ;  did  you  go  to  sec  thorn  ?  "  whereupon  she  says, 
"  He  I  miemasen"  ("I  did  not  sec");  and  a  more 
or  less  lively  exercise  in  irregular  Japanese  gerunds 
and  participles  ensues.  The  colloquial  tongue  can- 
not be  called  difficult  to  acquire,  when  once  a 
sufficient  vocabulary  has  been  mastered,  but  the 
modes  of  thought  with  the  Japanese  are  different 
from    ours,    and    great    care    is    necessary    to    avoid 


A    WOMAN   SLKEI'IXO 


blunders  in  the  established  etiquette  of  using 
honorific  words  to  others  and  depreciatory  expres- 
sions as  regards  yourself.  To  command  a  correct 
and  refined  speech  and  to  know  the  kata-kana  and 
"grass  writing"  of  Japanese  would  naturally  be  a 
work  of  years  instead  of  months. 

Amid  these  pleasant  and   placid   domesticities,  in 


284  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

the  bright  comfort  of  our  Japanese  home,  we  live, 
for  the  time  being,  as  happily  as  can  be  imagined. 
At  seven  a.  m.  O  Tori  Han  pushes  back  the  shoji 
from  the  room,  where  I  sleep  on  the  floor  under 
padded  quilts,  called  futons,  and,  letting  in  the 
splendid  sunshine  of  the  Japan  morning,  ejaculates 
"  Ohayo  !  "  and  slides  my  gozen,  the  early  breakfast- 
tray,  to  my  side.  Then  she  shuffles  about,  attend- 
ing to  the  bath  and  toilette  of  her  young  mistress, 
and  bringing  in  the  fire-boxes,  while  the  "  Ace  of 
Spades  "  fetches  water,  the  Kuruma  man  cleans  his 
jinrikisha,  the  cook  buys  the  provisions  for  the  day, 
the  cook's  wife  plays  with  her  baby  on  her  samisen, 
and  Mano  and  his  wife  polish,  and  dust,  and  sweep. 
On  New  Year's  Day  we  must  not  have  any  cleaning 
or  dusting;  it  would  brush  away  the  good  luck  of 
the  coming  year,  in  honour  of  which  great  festival 
our  gates,  like  those  of  every  house,  hut,  and  shop 
in  Tokio,  are  at  present  decorated  with  Japanese 
national  flags  and  the  Kadomatsu.  There  are 
erections  of  pine,  bamboo,  and  sprays  of  evergreen 
put  up  on  either  side  of  the  gate  or  door,  adorned 
with  oranges,  flowers,  festoons  of  rope  and  paper, 
and  sometimes  with  dried  boiled  crayfish.  All  these 
things  are  emblematic  of  luck  and  goodwill,  and 
everybody  must  also  eat  mochi — rice  or  bean  cake — 
at  this  important  era,  and  say,  Mazu  akete  mashite, 
o  medeto  gozaimas.  "  At  this  opening  year,  I  wish 
you  happiness." 

If  you  can  stand  a  little  bit  of  Japanese  poetry, 
here  is  one  of  the  verses  they  sing  about  the  fir- 
bushes  and  decorations — 


AT  HOME.  285 

"  Kadomatsu  wa 
Meido  no  tabi  no 
Ichi-ri  zuka ; 
Medeto  1110  ari, 
Medeto  mo  nashi ;  " 

which  may  be  closely  interpreted — 

"  The  gateway-pines  we  plant 
Are  milestones  of  Life's  road, 
Marking  the  stages  passed  ; 
And  glad  the  way  for  some, 
And  sad  for  some  the  way !  " 

Presents  of  love,  goodwill,  and  compliment  fly  about 
in  every  direction.  They  must  be  tied  up  in  a  par- 
ticular manner,  with  certain  kinds  of  string,  and 
bearing  little  paper  symbols  called  noshi.  Anything 
will  do !  we  are  a  simple  people  in  Tokio.  Miss 
Asso,  in  exchange  for  a  box  of  bonbons,  has,  as 
before  remarked,  just  brought  us  some  battledores 
and  shuttlecocks.  Half  the  city  is  playing  with 
these  as  the  latest  fashion,  or  flying  kites.  Dried 
salmon  are  in  especial  favour  as  presents. 

I  feel  how  utterly  indescribable  it  all  is,  even 
while  trying  to  describe  this  unique,  unparalleled, 
unspoiled,  astonishing,  fascinating,  sweet-tempered 
Japan.  After  two  months  spent  in  their  midst,  I 
have  to  repeat  what  I  ventured  to  say  after  two 
weeks,  that  nowhere,  for  the  lover  of  good  manners, 
is  there  a  country  so  reposeful,  so  refreshing,  so  full 
of  antique  grace,  and  soft,  fair  courtesies  as  this 
"  Land  of  the  Rising  Sun."  Only  go  among  them 
with  goodwill    and   sympathy,  and — whatever    your 


286  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

blunders  of  deportment  and  language — you  will 
meet  here  from  all  ranks  of  the  people  a  refine- 
ment of  politeness  and  a  charm  of  intercourse  no- 
where else  experienced.  I  declare  I  have  as  yet 
never  seen  or  heard  a  Jaj)anese  woman  do  or  .say 
anything  which  fell  short  of  such  a  high  standard 
of  propriety,  consideration,  and  savoir  /aire  as 
would  be  expected  from  a  perfect  English  lady. 
If  you  think  that  is  merely  my  ignorance  or  preci- 
pitancy, let  me  add  that  I  am  ubiquitous,  and  know 
by  this  time  something  of  all  classes  of  native 
society,  and  can  still  decisively  recommend  Japan 
to  any  public  man  weary  with  the  fuss  and  flurry 
of  Western  life  as  the  softest  tonic,  the  surest 
restorative,  the  kindest  and  brightest  panacea  for 
too  much  thought  and  too  long  toil.  There  is  not 
a  man,  woman,  or  child  within  sight  who  ever  heard 
of  the  Irish  question — think  only  of  that !  They 
do  not  know,  or  care  to  know,  whence  I  came,  and 
cannot  even  pronounce  my  name,  because  there  is 
an  "  L  "  in  it.  But  because  I  like  them  they  like 
me,  and  there  are  twenty  delightful  places  where 
I  can  any  day  repair  at  any  hour,  sit  on  the  soft 
white  floor,  sip  tea,  smoke,  listen  to  the  samisen, 
and  hear  my  broken  Japanese  put  right  from  the 
gentlest  and  kindest  of  lips  and  amongst  ever- 
radiant  faces.  All  which,  I  believe,  is  called  by 
some  the  "  heathenish  East." 

We  assisted  a  night  or  two  ago  at  a  charming 
entertainment,  where  Japanese  and  European  chil- 
dren were  mingled  in  a  fancy-dress  dance.  The 
little    native    maids,    in     brilliant-coloured    kimono 


AT  HOME. 


287 


and  dazzling  obi,  demurely  danced  Japanese  and 
Western  measures  with  tiny  lads,  dressed  as 
daimios  and  samurais,  carrying  two  swords  and 
grandly  apparelled  with  shoulder-pieces  and  satin 
trousers.     After  the  children  retired  the   older  ones 


DANCING   (URL. 


played  at  being  young,  and  I  saw  the  German 
Minister  slap  his  Excellency  of  tin1  Austrian  Empire 
at  the  game  of  "King  and  Rope"  with  an  energy 
which  nothing  but  abandoned  festivity  could  save 
from  becoming  an   immediate  casus  belli,  while  one 


288  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Plenipotentiary  was  obliged  to  call  aloud  to  his 
consort,  "  De  la  moderation,  Madame  /"  So  there 
is  something;,  as  will  be  seen,  for  all  moods  in 
Tokio. 

But  best  of  all  it  is  when  you  are  tired  of 
walking  up  and  down  the  quiet  garden,  under  the 
bamboos  and  camellias — and  are  even  satisfied  with 
gazing  on  snow-silvered  Fuji-San — to  stroll  down 
the  streets,  sparkling  with  painted  lanterns,  and 
casting  off  your  shoes  at  the  spotless  threshold  of 
the  little  house  you  know  in  Mikawa  Daimachi, 
to  sit  on  the  soft  white  tatamis,  amid  a  gentle 
shower  of  musical  salutations,  "  Ohayos,"  and  "Y6. 
o  ide  nasai-mashtas,"  and  drinking  the  fragrant  tea 
and  lighting  the  tiny  kiseru,  to  listen  to  the  songs 
of  the  "  Dragon  king's  daughter,"  and  to  dream 
you  are  Urashima,  who  discovered  the  Fortunate 
Islands,  and  stayed  there  happily  for  a  thousand 
years.  On  the  wall  will  hang  some  picture  of  the 
life  or  teachings  of  the  Buddha,  whose  compas- 
sionate peace  has  passed  into  the  spirit  of  the 
land.  The  clean  and  shapely  brown  feet  of  laugh- 
ing musumes  patter  on  the  floor  in  willing  ser- 
vice like  the  coming  and  going  of  birds.  We  fry 
slices  of  mochi  upon  the  brazier,  and  sip,  in  bright 
sobriety,  the  pale  yellow  tea.  A  spray  of  scarlet 
winter  berries,  and  the  last  of  the  yellow  chrys- 
anthemums, suspended  in  a  bamboo  joint,  give  a 
point  of  lively  colour  to  the  apartment,  which  is 
so  commodious  because  it  has  no  doors,  and  so 
neat  and  spotless  because  we  do  not  make  streets 
of   our    houses    like    you    at    home.       When    the 


AT  HOME. 


289 


samisen  is  not  tinkling  the  sound  of  light  laughter 
makes  sufficient  music,  for  we  are  kokoro  ya.su i, 
"  heart-easy,"  and  life  is  never  very  serious  in 
Japan.       Listen    a    little    to    the    gay,  fragmentary 


PIM   i^^T     Jag 

,^H 

L •*' 

"--re--.. '.  « 

J 

JAPANESE    VILLAGE. 


love  song  O  Tatsu  San  is  murmuring  to  the  strings 
which  she  strikes  with  the  ivory  bachi — 

"  Shote  \va  joclan 
Nakagora  giri  de 
Ima  ja  tagai  no 
Jitsu  to  jitsu." 

Is  it  something  real  in  her  own  little  existence 
which  renders  her  brown  eyes  so  soft  and  expressive 
as  she  thus  sings? — 


"  First  'twas  all  a  jest, 

Then  'twas  daily  duty  ; 


2 go  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Now  'tis  at  its  best, 

True  faith,  homely  beauty — 

Both  quite  love — possessed." 

Was  there  really  ever  an  "  Irish  question,"  you 
ask  yourself,  and  did  we  strive  ardently  against 
the  great  Mr.  Gladstone  upon  it?  How  vain 
and  tedious  it  all  appears  now,  contrasted  with 
this  placid  Japanese  insouciance !  Mata  utatte 
kudasai !  "  One  more  little  song,  O  Tatsu  San, 
and  replenish  the  '  honourable  tea !' '  At  such 
moments  the  weary  politician  might  be  tempted 
to  say,  "  Better  twenty  years  of  Asia  than  a  cycle 
of  the  West!" 

Tokio,  Dec.  29,  1889. 


CHAPTER   XXL 

NATURE    AND    ART. 

O  Tori  San,  plumpest  and  most  cheerful  of  waiting 
maids,  has  just  brought  in  and  presented,  upon  her 
knees  and  nose,  copies  of  a  Japanese  art  journal 
sent  me  by  its  editor.  This  brings  to  mind  that  I 
have  had  no  time  as  yet  to  write  on  the  large  and 
attractive  subject  of  Japanese  art,  hitherto  but  little 
understood,  notwithstanding  the  rich  collections  of 
bronzes,  ivories,  porcelain,  lacquer-work,  carvings, 
arabesques,  embroidery,  painted  screens,  and  pictures, 
which  have  been  many  times  gathered  in  London. 
Japan  is,  in  one  sense,  a  land  peopled  by  artists. 
Everybody  here,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  has 
some  trace,  at  least,  of  that  aesthetic  comprehension, 
indescribable  but  instinctive,  which  makes  an  art- 
lover  feel  at  a  glance  the  supreme  excellence  of  the 
Elgin  Marbles,  the  consummate  beauty  of  the  Par- 
thenon, the  grace  of  Raphael,  the  strength  of  Michael 
Angelo,  the  sweetness  of  Beethoven's  "  Adelaida," 
the  divine  tenderness  of  Chopin's  Funeral  March. 
That  sort  of  faculty  is,  in  a  certain  degree,  innate 
in  the  Japanese,  though  their  schools  and  their 
canons  of  art  differ  so  widely  from  those  of  the 
West. 


292 


SEAS  AND  LANDS. 


Nothing  is  ugly  in  the  very  humblest  Japanese 
home.  From  the  rice-tub  to  the  hair-pins,  all 
domestic  and  personal  articles  are  more  or  less 
beautiful  and  becoming.  The  Government,  shar- 
ing the  national  passion  for  beauty  in  nature 
and  art,  plants  seats  just  at  those  spots  of  its 
public  gardens  and  highways  where  the  view  is 
perfect    of    Fuji-San    or    of    the    sea,    or   of  some 


MAT-MAKING 


range  of  wooded  hills ;  and  it  is  common  along 
the  by-roads  to  find  official  notices  telling  you 
where  to  stop  for  the  best  prospect,  or  how  to 
find  the  most  lovely  clump  of  plum  or  cherry 
blossom.  In  the  same  spirit  the  peasant  and  the 
artisan,  when  their  wife  sets  a  flowering  plant  on 
the  Tansu,  looks  upon  it  almost  in  the  light  of  a 
good    meal,  and    might    grudge    money  for  fish  or 


NATURE  AND  ART.  293 

rice,  rather  than  for  that.  A  corresponding  artistic 
genius  runs  through  all  their  crafts,  making  their 
commonest  domestic  joinery  <klmost  like  jeweller's 
work  for  finish,  their  mat-making  as  delicate  as 
silk-weaving,  their  tubs  and  pails  and  buckets  as 
exquisite  in  design  and  completeness  as  ivory  work. 
And  the  strange  thing  is  that  they  have  the  two 
styles  rarely  found  combined,  one  of  which  is  char- 
acterised by  this  same  exquisite  finish,  while  the 
other  is  that  swift,  suggestive  impressionism  so  con- 
stantly seen  in  their  ordinary  drawings  and  designs. 
Where  they  will  complete  a  thing,  nothing  can  be 
completer  ;  the  microscope  itself  could  find  no  flaw 
in  the  patient,  faithful  article  turned  out.  When, 
again,  they  merely  desire  to  arouse  the  imagination, 
one  sweep  of  the  brush,  one  turn  of  the  dexterous 
wrist,  and  they  have  indicated  twenty  leagues  of 
blue  distance,  or  limned  a  bird's  wing  in  the  very  act 
of  beating.  This  latter  manner,  also,  characterises 
their  national  poetry.  Bear  with  one  little  scrap  of 
it,  in  order  to  realise  how  the  Japanese  Muse  can 
trust  the  quick  fancies  of  her  children  in  the  domain 
of  song.  A  Japanese  girl,  going  to  her  well  in  the 
morning,  finds  that  a  convolvulus  during  the  night 
has  twined  its  crimson  and  purple  bells  and  green 
tendrils  round  the  pail.  It  is  too  beautiful  to 
disturb!  She  abandons  the  bucket  to  the  fragrant 
invader,  and  goes  next  door  to  fill  her  domestic 
utensils.  Out  of  this  simple  incident  comes  a 
famous  song,  done  in  three  lines  and  five  words. 
These  are— - 


294  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

"  Asagao 
Tsurube  torarete 
Moral  midzu." 

The  literal  translation  of  which  is — 

"  Convolvulus 
Bucket  taking, 
I  borrow  water." 

And  every  Japanese  ear  understands,  and  every 
Japanese  mind  can  delight  in,  the  photographic 
brevity  with  which  the  scene  and  the  thought  are 
thus  flashed,  as  it  were,  into  the  music  and  into 
the  heart.  But,  to  convey  these  to  a  Western  ear 
and  understanding,  it  would  be  needful  to  expand 
the  Japanese  poem  into  at  least  as  many  words  as 
the  following — 

"  The  '  Morning-glory  ' 
Her  leaves  and  bells  has  bound 
My  bucket-handle  round. 
I  could  not  break  the  bands 
Of  those  soft  hands. 
The  bucket  and  the  well  to  her  I  left : 
Lend  me  some  water,  for  I  come  bereft." 

And  so  must  all  the  finer  and  subtler  specimens 
of  Japanese  art — outside  as  well  as  inside  its 
classical  poetry — be,  as  it  were,  translated  and 
expanded  for  the  general  Western  comprehension. 
On  the  screen  in  my  bedroom  are  two  turtles 
swimming  in  the  sea,  wrought  upon  the  flimsiest 
of  paper,  with  certainly  not  more  than  three  brushes 
full    of   Indian   ink.     The  first   brush   swept    in  the 


NATURE  AND  ART.  295 

forms  of  the  reptiles,  and  the  vague  veil  of  the  sea- 
wave  half  covering  them.  The  second  delineated 
by  soft  half-tints,  the  mail-plates  of  their  carapaces, 
their  bending  flappers,  their  horny-plated  heads, 
and  shadowed  bellies.  The  third,  charged  with 
the  last  and  darkest  wash,  gave,  by  instantaneous 
touches,  life  and  motion  to  the  creatures,  made  the 
water  seem  to  follow  their  gliding  shells,  and  the 
tins  appear  to  fold  as  their  stroke  is  finished — 
effected,  in  a  word,  just  enough  for  the  imagination 
to  complete  the  irresistible  suggestion — so  that  there 
is  a  picture  in  it,  perpetually  delightful,  which  per- 
haps occupied  three  minutes  at  most  of  the  artist's 
time. 

In  this  kind  of  triumph  the  Japanese  designer 
reigns  supreme ;  but,  beyond  the  familiar  region 
of  leaves,  flowers,  birds,  and  creatures  which  have 
no  particular  individuality,  and  which  may  be  there- 
fore freely  generalised,  he  seems  not  to  perceive, 
or  not  to  value,  the  primary  element  of  beauty. 
As  regards  the  human  form,  he  shows  himself  in- 
deed insensible  to  the  real  canons  of  art,  albeit  this 
is  not  for  lack  of  power  and  observation ;  for  the 
statues  and  figures  wrought  in  wood,  and  coloured 
to  the  life,  which  I  have  seen  here  in  the  Art  School 
of  the  University,  and  also  at  Yokohama  in  Mr. 
Deakin's  very  rich  emporium,  are  of  a  finish  and 
force  positively  without  parallel  in  their  kind.  It 
is  life  itself  which  the  Japanese  wood-carver  there 
elicits  from  his  blocks  of  beach  and  pine,  and  they 
carry  out  the  exactness  of  the  representation,  which 
is  often  of  life-size,  to  a  single  hair  and  to  a  wander- 


296  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

ing  blue  vein — one  might  almost  say  to  the  very 
pores  of  the  skin.  Nor  does  it  matter,  to  their 
patient  hand  and  eye,  what  is  the  material  in  which 
they  work.  In  our  sitting-room  here,  at  my  side, 
is  a  black  panel  of  cherry-tree  with  a  figure  upon  it, 
in  ivory,  of  a  cock — a  niwatori,  or  "  garden-bird," 
as  the  Japanese  call  the  domestic  fowl.  The  artist 
evidently  had  picked  up  a  disregarded  thin  slice  of 
a  tusk,  the  remnant  of  some  manufactory  of  knife- 
handles  or  hair-brushes,  and  had  asked  himself  what 
could  be  made  of  it.  He  saw,  in  its  oval  form,  the 
possible  delineation  of  a  cock  resting  on  one  leg, 
with  his  head  drawn  back  into  his  feathers.  He 
has  realised  this  vision  perfectly,  cutting,  chiselling, 
scratching  his  ivory  plaque  into  such  admirable 
veracity  of  outline,  and  such  precise  truth  of  texture 
that  the  hackles,  the  wing-primaries,  the  wattle,  the 
beak  and  claws,  the  eyes,  the  comb,  the  soft  feathers 
of  the  tarsi,  and  the  waving  plumes  of  the  tail  have 
all  of  them  the  appearance  of  nature  itself — although 
the  plate  of  ivory  was  not  bigger  than  the  top  of  a 
hat,  to  begin  with.  Yet,  either  because  the  type 
of  Japanese  feminine  beauty  is  petite  and  little 
varied,  or  because  its  really  gracious  and  refined 
points  have  never  been  studied  artistically,  or 
have  been  studiously  despised  and  disregarded,  no 
Japanese  painter  or  carver  can  make  half  as  pretty 
and  graceful  a  female  face  and  figure  as  he,  or  any- 
body, may  see  in  a  day's  walk  about  Tokio  or 
Kioto.  This  may  be  partly  due  to  the  only  half- 
concealed  subordination  and  disesteem  in  which 
the  sex  is  here  held,  speaking  nationally.     Nobody 


X A  TURK  AND  ART.  297 

is,  indeed,  ever  brutal  to  a  woman  in  Japan,  as 
in  Europe.  She  has  nowhere  and  never  to  fear 
cruelty,  violence,  or  even  harsh  words.  But  her 
status  is  traditionally  inferior,  and  she  lives  a  semi- 
slave  in  too  many  cases — vastly  superior  though  she 
is  in  physical  and  mental  type  to  the  masculine  por- 
tion of  the  population  ;  and,  all  things  considered, 
perhaps  naturally  the  most  refined,  the  most  gentle, 
the  best-mannered,  the  most  modest,  and  most  self- 
respecting  woman,  after  her  own  fashion,  in  the 
whole  world ;  and,  in  a  placid  and  unemotional 
way,  the  most  grateful  for  deference  and  attention, 
and  the  most  attached  and  faithful  in  return  for 
affection.  Strange,  in  truth,  it  must  seem  that 
this  graceful  and  fairy-like  fellow-countrywoman  has 
never  inspired  Japanese  artists  with  the  ideal  of 
human  beauty  latent  in  her  special  charms.  They 
can  see  beauty,-  too,  everywhere  else.  Round  this 
house  run  broad  unpainted  planks  of  fir,  fixed  to 
strengthen  the  outside  amemados,  or  rain-shutters. 
To  give  them  ornament  and  lightness,  the  builder 
has  set  a  craftsman  to  cut  stencilled  ducks  and 
pheasants  out  of  the  blank  face  of  the  wood.  Nor 
is  it  possible  to  exaggerate  the  skill  and  spirit  with 
which  he  has  put  his  fret-saw  into  the  plank,  and 
by  a  cut  or  two  here  and  there,  through  which  the 
external  light  passes,  created  the  most  fantastic  and 
amusing  groups  of  wild-fowl  in  flight,  or  gulls  and 
terns  floating  upon  water,  or  of  pheasants  and  other 
birds  passing  through  the  air.  Who  else  could  thus 
saw  a  hole  in  a  fir-slab  which  should  look  so  like 
the  outline   in  silver  of  a  wild   goose   on   the  wing, 


298  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

that  a  sportsman  might  almost  swear  to  the  breed 
and  the  colour? 

With  regard  to  the  wonderful  lacquer-work  in 
which  Japan  stands  unrivalled,  an  American  chemist 
— Mr.  Hitchcock — has  recently  explained  the  pro- 
cess, after  close  study  : — 

"  Lacquer  comes  from  a  tree  called  Rhus  Vemicijera,  which 
grows  throughout  the  main  island  of  Japan,  but  principally  around 
Kioto.  The  juice,  from  which  lacquer  is  obtained,  exudes  from 
cuts  in  the  bark,  and  is  collected  from  May  to  October.  It  issues 
slowly,  and  is  collected  with  a  pointed  instrument,  and  transferred 
to  a  wooden  vessel.  A  dozen  trees  are  cut  in  several  places  in 
rapid  succession,  and  the  juice  gathered  from  time  to  time.  During 
the  season  each  tree  is  requisitioned  about  twenty  times.  As 
the  sap  first  exudes  it  is  a  greyish,  thick  or  viscous  fluid,  which 
quickly  turns  to  yellow,  and  afterwards  to  black,  when  it  comes  in 
contact  with  the  air.  It  is  strained  through  a  cotton  cloth  to  free 
it  from  wood  and  dirt,  after  being  thoroughly  stirred  to  render  it 
of  uniform  consistency.  A  portion  of  the  raw  lacquer  is  then 
poured  into  a  large  circular  vessel,  and  vigorously  stirred  with  a 
long-handled  implement  for  five  or  six  hours,  while  the  heat  of  a 
small  charcoal  furnace  is  thrown  on  the  surface  to  evaporate  the 
water.  During  the  stirring  certain  ingredients  are  added.  Iron 
produces  the  fine  black  lustre ;  in  Tokio  a  soluble  salt  of  iron 
being  employed  for  this  purpose,  in  Osaka  iron  dust.  The  lacquer 
is  then  poured  into  a  vessel  to  settle,  and  is  afterwards  drawn  off. 
The  wood  used  is  a  variety  of  fir,  known  as  hinoki.  For  common 
work  it  is  covered  with  paper,  but  in  better  qualities  the  wood 
itself  is  the  surface,  being  first  carefully  smoothed  and  all  joints 
filled  up  with  the  raw  lacquer  mixed  with  rice  paste,  which  soon 
hardens  so  that  it  can  scarcely  be  marked  with  a  knife.  The 
whole  is  then  covered  with  a  mixture  of  inferior  lacquer,  and 
coarse,  gritty  powder,  and  left  a  few  days  to  dry,  after  which  it  is 
placed  in  a  moist  atmosphere  to  harden,  A  hard,  tenacious  surface 
is  thus  obtained  for  the  next  coat.     The  next  process  is  to  cover 


XATURE  AND  ART.  299 

the  wood  with  two  even  layers  of  lacquer  mixed  with  a  line  ochre 
powder,  so  as  to  get  a  perfect  smooth-grained  surface  for  the  sub- 
sequent work.  This  is  rubbed  down  with  a  stone,  and  the  parts 
which  are  not  to  receive  any  decoration  are  ready  for  the  finishing 
applications  of  the  lacquer.  The  other  portions  are  covered  with 
two  coats  of  black  lacquer;  the  first,  applied  with  a  broad  brush, 
dries  with  a  brilliant,  reflecting  surface ;  when  this  is  quite  hard 
the  second  coat  is  applied,  and  on  this  the  designs  are  impressed. 
In  Wakasa  ware  there  is  no  painting  or  drawing  ;  the  white  decora- 
tion is  made  by  scattering  egg-shell  powder  skillfully  by  hand  here 
and  there,  and  other  designs  are  produced  by  pressing  various 
leaves  on  the  surface.  To  get  the  surface  completely  smooth  again 
is  the  next  operation,  and  then  a  transparent  lacquer,  coloured 
yellow,  is  applied  with  the  object  of  furnishing  a  yellow  ground 
for  the  gold  which  is  to  be  laid  on.  This  is  covered  by  successive 
coats  of  the  same  lacquer  until  a  smooth  surface  is  again  obtained, 
beneath  which  are  the  gold  and  decorations.  Lacquer  gives  a 
much  harder  surface  to  wood  than  the  best  varnish,  and  is  not 
brittle.  It  takes  a  polish  lustrous  as  marble,  and  lasting  for 
centuries ;  it  is  proof  against  boiling  water,  alcohol,  and  would 
probably  make  the  very  best  coating  for  the  bottoms  of  sea-going 
vessels,  if  the  process  could  be  cheaply  applied.  The  objection  is 
the  danger  of  lacquer  poisoning  from  the  fresh  material,  which  is 
justly  dreaded  by  the  Japanese." 

I  should  be  inclined  to  declare  the  supremacy 
of  Japanese  art  most  assured  in  wood,  ivory,  and 
panel  carving.  Certainly  there  is  nothing  known 
to  me  in  Europe,  from  the  masterpieces  of  Grin- 
ling  Gibbons  down  to  the  best  things  in  modern 
churches  and  mansions,  to  come  near  what  superior 
Japanese  workmen  can  achieve.  Their  ivory  Nd- 
sukis  are  well  enough  known,  but  yon  must  still 
come  to  Japan  to  see  the  best  and  finest.  These 
little    articles — cut    out    of  any    scrap    of  elephant 


3oo  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

tusk  on  hand — are  used  as  toggles  or  studs  where- 
with to  suspend  from  the  girdle  the  purse,  the 
tobacco-pipe,  or  the  doctor's  case  of  medicines. 
With  incredible  patience,  with  instinctive  skill, 
and  nicest  observation  of  Nature,  the  craftsman 
not  only  produces  by  manual  use  of  the  file, 
graver,  and  drill,  the  perfect  if  grotesque  object 
intended,  and  finishes  it  off  in  all  its  hidden 
corners,  with  a  scrupulous  conscientiousness,  but 
obtains  also  by  dexterous  superficial  lines  and 
marks,  the  exact  texture  of  the  skin,  or  hair,  or 
feather  to  be  indicated. 

One  of  the  larger  specimens  recently  shown  to  me 
represented  a  bag  of  rice  with  two  or  three  dozen 
rats  in  and  upon  it.  Every  rat  was  as  individual  in 
character,  position,  and  action,  as  if  a  special  portrait 
had  been  taken  of  him  ;  and  the  web  of  the  bag, 
the  glistening  grains  of  rice,  and  the  sleek  fur  of 
the  rodents  could  not  have  been  better  expressed  in 
painting.  Again,  at  the  Art  School  of  the  University 
I  spent  a  morning  lately  in  one  of  the  rooms,  where 
twenty  or  thirty  advanced  students  were  carving  for 
practice,  and  for  the  purposes  of  a  lecture,  upon  slabs 
of  simple  white  fir-wood.  In  no  other  part  of  the 
world  could  such  natural  dexterity,  precise  observa- 
tion, and  consummate  command  of  the  chisel  have 
been  witnessed.  Seated  on  the  ground,  and  using 
no  mallet,  but  merely  driving  with  hand  and  palm 
sharp-edged  gravers  and  gouges,  these  men  seemed 
to  treat  the  wood  as  if  it  were  clay.  Under  their 
touch  delicate  and  delicious  pictures  arose,  in  low 
relief,    of   bamboo    sprays,    of  the   rising    moon,   of 


NATURE  AND  ART.  301 

flights  of  wild-fowl  over  lakes  and  rice-fields,  of 
blossoming  plum-groves,  and  cherry-gardens,  and 
lotus-pools,  and  of  Fuji-San  soaring,  beautiful  and 
majestic,  from  her  girdle  of  clouds.  And  these 
marvellous  specimens  were  being  executed  in  the 
commonest  material,  and  merely  as  a  kind  of  college 
exercise ! 

To  see  the  very  choicest  and  rarest  of  such 
examples  of  the  wonderful  art-crafts  of  Japan,  one 
must  live  in  the  country  and  inspect  not  only  the 
articles  shown  in  the  best  curio  shops,  but  the 
private  heirlooms  in  the  houses  of  the  nobles,  and 
the  treasures  of  the  temples.  For  the  passing 
traveller  who  wishes  to  carry  off  with  him  trophies 
of  his  stay  in  Japan,  there  is  an  admirable  and 
well-known  art  store  on  the  Bund  at  Yokohama. 
Whoever  will  pay  the  necessary  price  for  really 
good  things,  chosen  by  the  experience  and  judg- 
ment acquired  during  many  years,  will  find  them 
in  this  collection,  which  has  no  rival  anywhere  in 
this  country.  It  employs  directly  many  of  the  best 
native  artists,  and  has  agents  always  travelling  in 
out  of  the  way  places,  where  relics  of  the  highest 
ancient  art  may  still  be  picked  up.  There  is,  conse- 
quently, no  better  spot  where  a  knowledge  of  the 
range  and  variety  of  Japanese  art — old  and  new — 
may  be  so  soon  and  pleasantly  acquired.  Practi- 
cally, everything  is  to  be  found  there,  from  the 
rare  and  precious  real  Satsuma — the  delight  of 
connoisseurs — to  Awata  and  all  the  other  marks, 
some  of  it  ancient  and  some,  even  more  beautiful, 
of  modern  work,  to  the   delicious   little  sword-hilts 


3Q2  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

and  scabbard-plates,  where  whole  legends  are  de- 
picted in  delicate  gold  upon  bronze,  rendered  even 
more  precious  than  gold,  by  deft  artistry.  The 
tourist  or  collector  will  see  there,  without  any 
trouble,  matchless  Cloisonne  work  by  that  prince  of 
designers,  Namikawa  of  Tokio,  whose  tender  grey 
and  rose-hued  tints  prove  him  a  master  of  the 
science  of  colour,  and  by  other  makers  hardly 
inferior,  who  know  how  to  employ  to  the  utmost 
advantage  the  newly  invented  and  dazzling  gold- 
stone,  producing  with  it  and  the  rest  of  their  rich 
palette  effects  superior  almost  to  jewellery  or  to 
Jeypore  enamel.  I  was  shown  last  week  at  Messrs. 
Deakin's  house  two  spherical  vases  of  Cloisonne, 
made  to  the  order  of  Count  dei  Bardi,  of  Venice. 
The  Count  had  given  1000  guineas  for  the  pair,  and 
they  were  worth  it ;  for  never,  I  think,  did  human 
hand  create  objects  of  such  quiet,  but  satisfying 
beauty,  of  such  marvellous  finesse  of  toil,  yet  pro- 
ducing such  broad  and  splendid  and  harmonious 
results.  Each  of  these  exquisite  vessels  presented 
a  perfect  feast  of  colour  from  surfaces  finished  in 
every  point  like  the  petal  of  a  lily  leaf,  but  full 
of  a  thousand  different  and  delicate  creations  of 
fancy,  and  of  alternately  bold  and  tender  contrasts 
of  tint. 

The  whole  process  of  Cloisonne  work  may  be 
studied  on  the  premises,  and  not  until  the  patient," 
skilful  artist  has  been  observed  at  his  labours  is  it 
possible  to  realise  the  vast  amount  of  faithful  mani- 
pulation entailed  in  the  creation  of  these  lovely  pieces. 
First,  there  comes  the  difficult  task  of  beating  out  the 


NATURE  AND  ART.  303 

copper  sheets  to  the  required  form  for  the  founda- 
tion. Next  the  artist  has  to  trace  on  its  face  the 
intricate  design  of  flower,  bird,  or  landscape;  then 
the  piece  is  passed  on  to  another  department,  where 
for  weeks,  months,  or  years  supple  fingers  are  en- 
gaged in  fixing  over  the  sketched  design  the  minute 
bits  of  wire  that  go  to  make  the  metallic  partitions 
for  the  reception  of  the  enamels,  and  not  until  it 
has  been  "  filled  "  five  times,  and  has  entered  the 
kiln  as  often,  does  the  article  reach  the  polisher, 
and  from  his  hands  pass  to  the  showroom.  Speci- 
mens of  Cloisonne  work,  forty,  fifty,  or  sixty  years 
old,  tell  how  great  has  been  Japan's  advance  of  late 
in  this  section  of  her  art  industry.  Then  the 
finished  article  was  dull,  leaden  in  colouring,  in- 
distinct in  design  ;  now  it  is  bright,  chaste,  and 
supremely  beautiful.  At  the  art  store  on  the  Bund 
of  Yokohama  you  will  see  and  covet  ivory  carvings 
of  ancient  or  modern  imagination,  lacquered  work 
in  red  and  black,  glorious  inlaid  panels  in  gold 
and  silver  and  mother-of-pearl,  antique  and  recent 
weapons  and  utensils,  bronzes  ranging  in  value 
from  fifty  cents  to  five  thousand  dollars,  magnificent 
cabinets,  boxes,  and  tables  enriched  with  fantastic 
designs  in  gold  and  powdered  egg-shell — these  and 
countless  other  treasures  attract  the  attention. 

I  was  shown  a  folding  screen,  destined,  like  the 
lovely  vases,  for  Italy,  on  which  five  special  crafts- 
men had  laboured  incessantly  during  six  years, 
using  up,  not  only  all  that  time  and  all  their  skill, 
but  nearly  six  thousand  dollars'  worth,  besides,  of 
gold,  silver,  pearl,  shell,  ivory,  jewels,  and  the  finest 


304  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

lacquer.  It  portrayed  how  Yamatodake  tempted 
the  dragon  to  drink  sake,  and  how  he  killed  the 
great  beast  in  order  that  he  might  himself  win  the 
lovely  daughter  of  the  Sun-Goddess  in  marriage  ; 
and  it  was  altogether  such  a  magnificent  work 
as  could  in  no  other  country  save  Japan  be  seen 
or  produced.  Then  there  are  to  be  studied  and 
admired  dazzling  brocades  and  silken  kakemono ; 
strange  old  temple  lamps  which  have  lighted  the 
devotions  of  numberless  dead  generations  of  Bud- 
dhists ;  bronze  shrines,  and  bronze  Dai-Butsus, 
among  the  last  of  which  I  saw  an  image  presented 
by  the  Shogun  Yoritomo  to  the  Riu  Shogi  Temple 
in  commemoration  of  his  victory  over  Hidekesa. 
At  this  really  wonderful  emporium  one  may 
examine,  as  nowhere  else,  the  Tsuba  or  sword- 
guards,  the  Fuchi- Kashira  or  scabbard  ornaments, 
splendid  and  precious  sword-blades,  Kiserus,  j)ipes 
in  gold  and  silver  which  have  soothed  the  lips  of 
old  feudalistic  lords  and  ladies,  vases  of  rock-crystal 
and  jade,  marvels  of  cutting ;  and  quaint-looking 
dragons,  in  silver,  bronze,  and  ivory,  with  scales 
that  bend,  movable  jaws,  and  jewelled  eyes.  I 
lately  examined  a  piece  of  wood-carving,  of  abso- 
lutely matchless  excellence  in  spirit  and  execu- 
tion, representing  two  life-sized  wrestlers  struggling 
in  the  ring — the  whole  work  cut  and  coloured  to 
nature,  every  muscle  and  every  vein  delineated,  every 
tendon  and  ligament  anatomically  perfect,  a  triumph 
of  faithful  study  and  minute  observation.  "  Such 
cunning  those  that  live  on  high  have  given  to  the 
Jap !"     You  will  see  this  astonishing   achievement 


NATURE   AND  ART  305 

of  wood-carving  in  London,  T  think.  Before  it 
quitted  the  emporium  it  drew  a  constant  crowd,  and 
the  sea-front  of  the  premises  had  to  he  curtained 
off  at  last.  During  the  display  a  rather  amusing 
incident  occurred.  A  policeman  informed  the  pro- 
prietor, that,  if  he  intended  to  continue  the  wrestling 
on  his  premises,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should 
engage  a  posse  of  policemen  to  restrain  the  crowd. 
He  was  invited  into  the  store,  and  melted  into 
official  smiles  when  he  saw  that  the  wrestlers  were 
carvings  in  wood.  He  muttered  naruhodo,  and  left. 
Briefly  there  is  no  place  is  Japan  to  he  so  decisively 
recommended  to  the  student  of  Japanese  art  with 
limited  time  at  his  disposal  as  the  collection  to 
which  I.  am  referring  on  the  Bund  at  Yokohama, 
especially  if  he  has  taken  the  "  curio  fever,"  a 
dangerous  malady,  too  well  known  to  glohe-trotters 
visiting  Japan.     It  has  been  rightly  written — 

"  You  don't  '  shop  '  in  this  country.  Shopping  implies  pre- 
meditation, and  premeditation  is  in  vain  in  Japan.  If  you  know 
what  you  want  your  knowledge  is  set  aside  in  a  moment,  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye,  and  your  purchases  gratify  anticipations  that 
you  never  had,  to  be  paradoxical.  And  you  never  fully  know 
the  joy  of  buying  until  you  buy  in  Japan.  Life  condenses  itself 
into  one  long  desire,  keener  and  more  intense  than  any  want  you 
ever  had  before — the  desire  of  paying  and  possessing.  The  loftiest 
aims  are  swallowed  up  in  this  ;  the  sternest  scientist,  or  political 
economist,  or  social  theorist  that  was  ever  set  ashore  ;it  Yokohama 
straightway  loses  life's  chief  end  among  the  curios,  and  it  is  at 
least  six  weeks  before  he  finds  it  again.  And  as  to  the  ordinary 
individual,  without  the  guidance  of  superior  aims,  time  is  no  mure 
for  him,  nor  things  temporal  ;  he  is  lost  in  contemplation  of  the 
ancient  and  the  beautiful   in  the  art  of  Nippon,  and  though  he 

j  1 


306  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

sell  his  boots  and  pawn  his  grandfather's  watch  he  will  carry  it 
off' with  him  to  the  extent  of  his  uttermost  farthing." 

I  have  mentioned  before  that  this  is  to  be  a  most 
important  spring-time  for  our  capital.  His  Excel- 
lency the  British  Minister  having  just  notified  the 
Government  that  their  Royal  Highnesses  the  Duke 
and  Duchess  of  Connaught  are  expected  to  arrive 
in  Japan  shortly,  arrangements  for  their  reception 
are  in  progress.  The  Enryokwan  Palace  will  be 
placed  at  their  disposal.  Furthermore,  the  official 
notices  are  out  regulating  the  first  elections  to  the 
new  Parliament,  which  will  meet  at  the  end  of  May. 
This  and  the  working  of  the  new  constitution  is  a 
tremendous  experiment  for  Japan,  and  one  which 
may  not  be  initiated  without  some  trouble.  But 
I,  for  one,  have  faith  in  the  future  of  this  fair  and 
friendly  Empire. 

Imai-cho,  Jan.  20,  1890. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

COURT    A  X  D    COM  M  E  K  C  E. 

As  one  learns  more  and  more  of  the  language,  and 
so  approaches  a  little  nearer  to  the  thoughts  and 
hearts  of  this  people,  he  becomes  aware  that  almost 
all  the  books  previously  perused  about  Japan  were 
in  a  great  degree  superficial,  and  that  he  is  in  a 
new  world,  life  in  which  is  almost  as  strange  and 
different  as  would  be  existence  in  the  moon.  The 
very  plum-trees  are  peculiar.  They  have  learnt 
some  floral  secret  by  which  their  blossoms  entirely 
disregard  the  sharp  frosts  of  the  January  nights,  so 
as  to  appear  in  sudden  and  splendid  beauty  with 
these  first  days  of  February.  Not  only  in  our  own 
garden,  but  on  every  lane  and  hillside,  this  great 
green  city  has  suddenly  become  lovely  with  silver 
and  crimson  plum-flowers  covering  the  heretofore 
bare  branches  of  the  trees,  and  filling  the  prospect 
with  grace  and  the  atmosphere  with  fragrance. 
One  spot  in  the  city,  at  Kameido,  is  now,  or  will 
soon  be,  a  special  resort,  because  of  the  Gwa-Rio- 
Bai  or  "sleeping-dragon  plum-trees,"  which  are  to 
be  seen  in  a  large  orchard  near  at  hand.  There 
oOO  ancient  trees  covered  with  flowers  have  been 
trained  to  creep  along  the  ground,  forming  thickets 


308  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

of  delicious  bloom ;  while  stanzas  of  poetry  in 
praise  of  their  perfume  and  glory  are  cut  upon  the 
stone  pillars  round  about,  or  written  upon  slips  of 
gold  paper.  At  the  gate  are  sold  boxes  of  dried 
and  salted  plums,  called  ume-boshi.  And  the 
pleasant  people  are,  like  their  pretty  plum-trees, 
perpetually  disclosing  ways  and  habits  wholly 
different  from  those  of  the  West.  With  other 
moralities,  other  virtues,  other  failings,  other  ob- 
jects of  effort  and  avoidance,  other  estimates  of 
good  and  evil,  other  notions  of  life  and  love  and 
death  from  those  which  are  part  of  our  being,  they 
are  a  race  alone  and  uncomprehended.  One  would 
almost  say  that  the  land  and  the  trees  and  the 
people  were  made  for  each  other — they  are  all 
so  unique,  unexpected,  and  original.  The  passion 
of  the  commonest  citizens  and  peasants  for  the 
jewellery  which  Nature  now  hangs  for  them  upon 
the  hillsides  and  gardens  is  but  one  among  their 
distinguishing  characteristics.  Everybody  has  a 
little  dwarf  plum-tree,  covered  with  white  or  rosy 
blossoms,  honoured  like  a  household  god,  in  his 
hut  or  shop ;  and  flower-barrows  everywhere  per- 
ambulate the  city,  drawn  by  humble  professors  of 
floral  aesthetics,  who  make  a  fine  art  of  dressing 
and  disposing  their  beautiful  wares. 

But  I  must  leave  the  absorbing  topic  of  Japanese 
thoughts  and  ways  for  a  future  occasion  in  order  to 
speak  of  two  or  three  important  social  functions  at 
which  we  have  lately  assisted  in  the  capital.  Count 
Yamagata,  the  present  Prime  Minister  and  head  of 
the  Government,  gave  last  week  a  magnificent  ball, 


COURT  AND  COMMERCE.  309 

in  the  public  building  known  as  the  "  Hall  of  the 
Cry  of  the  Stag."  The  occasion  was  favourable  to 
study  a  fashionable  function  of  the  "  Upper  Ten  "  in 
Tokio,  for  the  Count  had  invited  more  than  1200 
guests,  of  whom  about  seventy  or  eighty  were 
Europeans.  Outside  the  building  all  was  gay  and 
bright  with  innumerable  crimson  lanterns  swinging 
in  festoons  from  tree  to  tree  and  along  the  walls 
and  gateways.  Endless  strings  of  jinrikishas  dash 
up  the  broad  paths  and  deliver  their  consignments 
of  ladies  in  ball  costume  and  dazzlingly  decorated 
Japanese  officers  at  the  entrance  ;  for  the  "  kuruma  " 
is  almost  the  universal  vehicle,  and  comparatively 
few  carriages  frequent  the  narrow  streets  of  the 
capital. 

Nobody  could  outdo  the  Japanese  in  the  adorn- 
ment of  interior  and  exterior  with  foliage  and 
flowers,  and  we  pass  through  a  forest  of  palm  and 
bamboo  and  fir  branches  to  the  broad  staircase,  at 
the  head  of  which  the  Count-Premier,  glittering  with 
all  the  orders  known  to  the  Empire,  stands  with  his 
Countess,  in  European  robe  of  white  satin  and  gold, 
to  receive  the  guests.  The  almost  general  adoption 
of  Western  modes  makes  the  ballroom  less  striking 
to  a  European  eye  than  the  picturesque  grounds, 
where  the  crowds  of  jinrikishas  and  cream-coloured 
Chinese  ponies  so  little  resemble  anything  in  Eng- 
land. Dancing  goes  on  with  spirit,  always  after  the 
Continental  fashion,  and  the  Japanese  take  part  in 
lancers  and  mazurkas  with  very  great  solemnity — 
the  officers  especially  performing  every  figure  as 
carefullv  as  though  it  were  some  military  maineuvre. 


3io  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

They  wear  the  insignia  of  the  "  Rising  Sun  "  in  rose 
and  white,  the  Chrysanthemums  in  yellow,  and  the 
"  Coast  Defence  "  in  green,  making  a  brave  show — 
but,  alas !  if  only  the  Japanese  ladies  understood 
how  far  more  graceful  their  petite  forms  would  look 
in  their  own  native  dress !  The  few  kimono  worn 
in  the  brilliant  throng  by  Japanese  dames  and 
damsels,  too  patriotic  or  sensible  to  mask  their 
graces  in  Western  skirts  and  bodices,  serve  to  show 
what  a  mistake  it  has  been  to  decree  this  change  in 
national  habits,  which,  however,  does  not  descend 
very  deep.  In  the  streets  the  national  garb  is  still 
practically  universal,  and  even  these  Court  ladies, 
when  they  get  home,  will  hasten  to  throw  aside 
their  importations  from  Paris  and  London,  to  gird 
their  own  soft  and  sober  silks  and  crapes  round 
their  slender  waists  with  the  bright  obi,  and  to 
remove  from  their  cramped  little  feet  the  pointed 
satin  shoes.  Almost  all  the  Ministers  of  State  were 
present  at  this  entertainment,  as  well  as  two  or 
three  of  the  Imperial  Princes,  and  of  course  the 
ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  various  legations.  At 
a  second  grand  ball  given  by  Count  Saigon,  the 
Minister  of  Marine,  at  his  yashiki  in  Nagata  Cho, 
a  similar  spectacle  was  presented  ;  but  one  wondered 
whether  the  Japanese  really  enjoyed  the  foreign  style 
of  entertainment  as  much  as  their  own  graceful  and 
easy  banquets,  where  the  dancing  is  Oriental  and  sake 
cups  replace  the  sparkling  goblets  of  champagne. 

Count  Ito,  one  of  the  most  famous  of  modern 
Japanese  statesmen,  was  not  present  on  either  of 
these    great    occasions,   being    in    Opposition,    and 


COURT  AND  COMMERCE.  311 

absent  at  his  country  seat  near  Odawara,  a  little 
town  on  the  seashore  close  to  the  foot  of  Fuji-San. 
I  received,  however,  the  honour  of  a  special  invita- 
tion to  visit  the  author  of  the  new  Japanese  Consti- 
tution, and  went  down  to  Odawara  a  few  days  ago 
to  dine  with  the  chief  founder  of  modern  Japan. 
Count  Ito's  country  house  stands  on  the  seashore 
under  the  great  volcanic  hills  of  which  Fuji-San  is 
the  queen,  and  there  was  only  a  large  bamboo  cage 
or  aviary  of  storks  between  our  dining-room  and 
the  wavelets  of  the  sleeping  Pacific.  We  passed  a 
memorable  afternoon,  made  short  by  pleasant  con- 
versation about  European  and  native  statesmen  and 
the  past  and  future  of  Japan,  the  amiable  Countess 
presiding  at  the  table — set  after  the  European  fashion 
— having  near  her  her  little  son  and  daughter.  But 
behind  all  these  quiet  present  times  and  scenes  in 
Japanese  political  life  is  a  dark  bygone  background 
of  stormy  days  and  stirring  deeds,  which  lends  to 
the  present  generation  of  Japanese  statesmen  a 
curious  interest..  To  take,  for  example,  merely  those 
three  Ministers  whose  names  I  have  just  mentioned. 
Count  Yamagata,  the  President  of  the  Cabinet — a 
fine,  tall,  soldierly  man,  of  high-bred  look  and  bear- 
ing, as  becomes  a  nobleman  of  his  origin — held  a 
command  in  the  army  of  the  Mikado,  which  at  last 
overthrew  the  Shogunate,  and  laid  the  foundation  of 
that  great  Restoration  in  which  the  present  system 
is  built.  We  should  have  to  go  back  to  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  to  find  a  statesman  in  our  own  records 
who  has  thus  mingled  war  with  civil  affairs  in  the 
experiences  of  a  short  quarter  of  a  century. 


3i2  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

Then  again,  as  to  Count  Saigon,  the  Japanese 
First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  in  the  present  Ad- 
ministration. He,  too,  took  part  in  the  tierce 
strife  which  arose  between  the  partisans  of  the 
Shogun  and  the  loyalists  who  were  for  re-establish- 
ing the  ancient  regime,  and  in  that  contest  it  was 
his  ill-fate  to  be  forced  to  encounter  his  own  dearly 
loved  brother,  who  had  taken  up  arms  on  the  other 
side.  The  rebels,  or  Shogunites,  were  defeated,  and 
the  head  of  his  brother  was  brought,  neatly  washed 
and  packed  in  a  silk  bag,  as  a  present  of  honour, 
joy,  and  victory.  Imagine  such  a  recollection  for 
Lord  George  Hamilton  or  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith.  Lastly, 
I  spoke  of  my  visit  to  Count  Ito,  and  mentioned 
how  I  sate  at  table  with  the  ex-Premier  and  his 
wife  and  children.  The  Countess — quiet,  gentle, 
motherly,  and  wearing  spectacles,  carving  the  tai 
and  the  kamo  with  such  a  matronly  serenity — had 
yet  a  history  of  romance  and  devotion  which  could 
make  the  wildest  fictionist's  fortune.  Long  ago,  in 
those  dark  and  bloody  days  when  the  Minister  was 
her  lover,  and  a  fugitive  from  his  enemies,  there 
came. a  time  when  they  had  tracked  him  to  her 
house,  and  had  chosen  a  band  of  soshis  to  assassinate 
him.  The  noise  of  their  clogs  and  the  rattling  of 
their  scabbards  were  heard  ;  and  the  Count,  trapped 
like  the  royal  stag  in  his  mountain  pleasaunce,  drew 
his  Bizen  blade  and  prepared  to  die,  as  a  Japanese 
lord  should,  amid  a  circle  of  dead  foes.  But  while 
he  murmured  "  Sayonara  !  "  and  knitted  his  fingers 
round  the  sharkskin  hilt  of  his  sword,  that  brave 
lady,  whose  guest   I   was,  whispered,  "  i)o  not  die ; 


CO  CRT  AND  COMMER  CE.  3 1 3 

there  is  a  hope  still,"  upon  which  she  removed  the 
hibachi,  or  fire-box,  over  which  they  were  sitting, 
and,  lifting  up  the  matting  and  the  planks  beneath, 
induced  her  lover  to  conceal  himself  in  the  hollow 
space  which  exists  under  the  floor  of  all  Japanese 
houses.  The  murderers  broke  into  the  room,  a 
ferocious  band,  just  as  the  fire-box  had  been  re- 
placed, and  the  Countess  had  assumed  a  position  of 
nonchalance.  They  demanded  their  victim ;  and 
when  she  protested  against  their  intrusion,  and  bade 
them  search  if  they  wanted  Ito,  the  wretches  dragged 
her  about  the  apartment  by  her  long,  beautiful  black 
hair — now  touched  with  silver — and  grievously  mal- 
treated her,  but  could  not  shake  her  resolute  fidelity. 
Thanks  to  this,  Count  Ito,  the  hero  of  many  another 
strange  adventure,  escaped  from  the  chief  peril  of 
,  his  career,  and  has  lived  to  give  his  country  a  new 
Constitution  and  to  be  one  of  the  foremost  and 
best-reputed  statesmen  of  modern  Japan. 

But  I  must  break  off  from  politics  and  other 
topics  of  pressing  interest,  to  draw  the  attention  of 
your  public  and  of  European  exhibitors  generally 
to  a  forthcoming  occasion,  not  sufficiently  estimated, 
as  I  believe,  by  men  of  business  in  England  and 
elsewhere,  as  regards  its  possibilities  for  increasing 
the  trade  between  your  capital  and  ours.  Japan 
is  about  to  hold  a  great  national  exhibition  in 
Tokio,  by  far  the  largest  and  boldest  of  its  kind 
ever  contemplated  here,  and  all  the  provinces  will, 
for  months  after  the  inauguration,  send  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  Empire  in  flocks  to  see  the  exhibits. 
Now     Japan     has    a    population     equal     to    that    of 


3i4  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

France,  with  incalculable  powers  of  development 
and  inexhaustible  natural  resources,  so  that  I  think 
I  can  do  no  better  service,  in  the  conclusion  of  this 
letter,  than  to  derive  from  an  authoritative  source 
the  fullest  particulars  available  about  this  notable 
undertaking,  in  the  desire  that  your  merchants  and 
exporters  may  be  enabled  to  take  part  in  good  time 
in  what  ought  to  prove  the  opening  of  a  new  epoch 
of  commerce  and  exchange  between  Japan  and  the 
West. 

Here,  then,  are  the  j)articulars,  which  I  take  from 
the  best  quarter  open  to  me.  Five  years  ago  the 
Japanese  Government  announced  that  a  national 
industrial  exhibition  should  be  held  in  Tokio  in 
1890.  Two  similar  exhibitions  had  already  taken 
place — the  first  in  1877,  and  the  second  in  1881 — 
and  their  success,  from  a  financial  point  of  view, 
had  seemed  sufficient  to  justify  a  renewal  of  the 
experiment  at  regular  intervals.  But  after  the 
Exhibition  of  1881  the  authorities  hesitated.  The 
problem  to  be  dealt  with  was  not  purely  industrial 
and  commercial ;  it  was  also  artistic  ;  and  in  Japan's 
economical  outlook  art  occupies  a  prominent  place. 
It  has  long  come  to  be  recognised  by  her  leading 
men,  that  to  attract  the  world's  custom,  her  best 
resource  lies  in  her  art.  Tea,  silk,  rice,  may  stand 
at  the  head  of  her  staples  of  export,  but  not  to  these 
is  due  the  magnetic  attraction  which  she  exercises 
upon  Western  peoples  or  the  place  she  has  won  in 
their  esteem.  The  true  secret  of  the  interest  she 
excites  must  be  sought  in  the  unique  artistic  capa- 
cities with  which    Nature  has  dowered  her  inhabi- 


COURT  AND  COMMERCE.  315 

tants.     A  nation  of  artists,  their  admirable  instinct, 
by    centuries    of  exercise  amidst  highly  favourable 
conditions,  has  found  expression  even  in  their  phy- 
sical   versatility.     The    commonest   carpenter    plies 
his  adze  with  hands    that  can  guide  the  sculptor's 
chisel,  and  the  hewer  of  stone  will  at  any  moment 
exchange  his  mallet  for  the  brush  of  the  decorative 
designer.     In  the  application    of  these  gifts   to  her 
manufactures,  Japan  sees  her  highest  hope  of  wealth 
and  distinction.     But  for  a  time  the  successful  em- 
ployment of  her  unique  talents  wras  interrupted  by 
a  special  influence.     After  the  centralisation  of  the 
Government,    in   1807,    the    leisurely   independence 
and  easily  earned  competence  of  feudal  days  became 
things  of  the  past.     Until  that  time  artists,  secured 
against  "  chilling  poverty  "  by  the  munificent  pat- 
ronage   of   feudal    barons,  worked    for  the  sake  of 
their   art,  not  for  the  sake  of  what  it  might  bring 
them.     Time  and   money  scarcely  concerned  them  ; 
at  whatever  cost  of  either,  their  object  was  achieved, 
and  achievement  sufficed.     But  when  feudalism  fell 
these  favourable  conditions   disappeared  altogether. 
The  feudal  barons,  divested   of  their  revenues  and 
authority,  had  to  turn  from  patronising  art  to  the 
humbler  occupation   of  making  both  ends  meet,  and 
the    newly   established   Government   found    its  time 
and    resources    entirely    monopolised     by    affairs    of 
State.     So   it.  fell   out  that  nothing  but   the  foreign 
market  stood  between  the  Japanese  artist  and  star- 
vation.    Stern    necessity    bade   him   adapt   his  work 
to  Western  taste — not    Western    taste   as  expressed 
in  the  then  nascent  revolt  against  an  era  of  tawdri- 


316  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

ness  and  vulgarity,  but  Western  taste  as  inter- 
preted by  the  commercial  traveller,  the  merchant 
skipper,  and  the  shopkeej)er.  If  under  such  cir- 
cumstances he  consented  to  a  temporary  sacrifice 
of  his  better  instincts,  some  excuse  may  be  found 
for  him  in  the  fact  that  the  nation's  mood  for 
the  moment  was  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  the  new 
and  marvellous  West  in  everything.  When  states- 
men were  borrowing  their  politics  and  jurisprudence 
from  abroad,  students  their  science  and  philosophy, 
manufacturers  their  capital  and  machinery,  it  did 
not,  perhaps,  appear  incongruous  or  improper  that 
artists  should  derive  standards  of  taste  from  the 
same  source. 

Many  penitential  years  must  elapse  before  the 
false  impression  this  period  produced  in  Europe 
and  America  can  be  effaced,  and  before  its  evil 
effects  on  the  Japanese  themselves  can  be  entirely 
corrected.  The  dark  age  culminated  in  1881, 
and  its  worst  fruits  were  exposed  to  public  gaze 
at  the  exhibition  in  that  year.  Everyday  folks, 
indeed,  did  not  bestow  much  thought  on  the 
matter:  Men  came  and  went,  carelessly  admiring 
the  motley  host  of  ornamental  objects  collected 
within  the  building  in  Uyeno  Park,  and  thinking 
little  of  the  disquieting  augury  that  was  to  be  drawn 
from  such  a  meretricious  profusion  of  decorative 
gaud,  such  glaring  untruthfulness  to  the  canons  of 
true  and  pure  Japanese  art.  Happily,  however, 
there  were  some  who  realised  the  sadness  of  seeing 
a  nation  break  away  from  all  that  is  beautiful  in 
its  traditions,  and  some,  also,  who  understood  that 


CO  UR  T  AND  COMMER  CK.  3 1 7 

the  path  upon  which  Japan  had  then  entered  could 
lead  only  to  decay  and  disgrace.  A  reaction  speedily 
set  in.  Few  at  first,  but  resolute  and  confident, 
the  reformers  set  themselves  to  recall  Japan  to  her 
proper  senses.  They  did  not  find  her  bigoted  in 
error.  Her  artists  were  willing  enough  to  be  led 
back  into  the  paths  from  which  they  had  strayed 
reluctantly,  and  the  powerful  aid  of  the  Government 
was  not  wanting  to  foster  the  Renaissance.  Of  the 
measures  adopted  it  will  be  sufficient  to  say  that 
periodical  exhibitions  on  a  small  scale,  under  the 
auspices  of  art  associations,  industrial  societies,  and 
local  governments,  played  an  important  part.  By 
their  aid  standards  were  re-established  and  popu- 
larised, and  a  genuine  perception  of  the  nature  and 
importance  of  the  problem  to  be  grappled  with  was 
disseminated  among  the  people.  The  results  will 
be  seen  at  the  exhibition  of  the  present  year.  It 
would  be  too  much  to  assert  that  Japan  can  then 
completely  re-establish  her  individuality  :  some  traces 
of  the  evil  leaven  must  naturally  be  still  apparent. 
But  there  can  be  no  question  that  we  are  about  to 
witness  an  unprecedented  display  of  beautiful  and 
characteristic  works  of  national  art.  If  some  speci- 
mens unworthy  of  the  revival  figure  among  the  ex- 
hibits, their  presence  will  be  more  than  compensated 
for  by  the  companionship  of  nobler  specimens  illus- 
trating the  remarkable  progress  made  by  Japanese 
art  industry  during  the  past  seven  or  eight  years. 
The  enameller,  the  embroiderer,  the  potter,  the 
worker  in  wood  and  metal,  the  lacquerer,  and  the 
weaver  will  all   demonstrate   that   if  in  some  direc- 


3i8  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

tions  they  cannot  yet  rival  the  technical  skill  of 
their  ancestors,  in  others  they  can  and  do  surpass 
it.  The  exhibition  is  to  be  inaugurated  on  April 
1st,  and  will  probably  remain  open  for  six  months, 
though  at  present  July  31st  is  spoken  of  as  the 
closing  day.  For  five  years  the  people  have  been 
preparing ;  and  the  authorities,  on  their  side,  sensible 
that  a  great  effort  is  to  be  made  by  the  nation,  are 
acting  up  to  the  occasion.  The  appropriation  from 
the  Treasury  on  account  of  the  first  exhibition  was 
$100,000 ;  that  for  the  second,  $180,000 ;  whereas 
for  the  third  half  a  million  has  been  set  aside.  The 
buildings  cover  an  area  of  eight  acres,  and  to  pass 
in  front  of  each  stall  only  once  the  visitor  will  have 
to  walk  sixteen  miles.  No  needless  expense  has 
been  incurred  in  connection  with  the  edifice.  It  is 
a  plain  wooden  structure,  spacious  and  conveniently 
planned,  but  neither  attractive  nor  imposing.  It 
stands,  however,  in  a  park  of  exquisite  natural 
beauty,  and  during  the  three  weeks  immediately 
following  its  opening  the  whole  neighbourhood  will 
be  alight  with  the  glory  of  the  cherry  blossoms. 
Already  space  has  been  demanded  for  160,000  ex- 
hibits— more  than  twice  the  total  number  displayed 
at  the  exhibition  of  1881 — and  among  them  are 
many  masterpieces,  such  as  a  generation  produces 
only  once  in  its  lifetime,  and  such  as  can  only  be 
seen  at  all  in  a  country  where  the  skilled  work  of 
a  highly  gifted  art  artisan  commands  less  than  the 
wage  of  a  London  dock  labourer.  In  addition  to 
the  exhibition  proper,  a  commanding  attraction  is 
promised  in  the  shape  of  a  museum  of  ancient  art 


CO  UR  T  AND  COMMER  CE.  3 1 9 

objects.  These  will  be  displayed  in  a  separate 
building,  permanently  devoted  to  .such  purposes, 
which  stands  within  a  furlong  of  the  main  edifice. 
Choice  specimens  from  the  imperial  collection  are 
to  constitute  the  nucleus  of  this  museum,  and  the 
boundless  treasures  of  private  collections  will  also 
be  freely  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  committee. 
The  Government  have  decided  to  issue  1000  compli- 
mentary tickets  to  persons  of  note  in  Europe  and 
America,  as  well  as  in  Japan.  These  tickets  will 
not  only  secure  free  admission  to  the  exhibition,  but 
will  also  entitle  their  holders  to  special  facilities 
of  travel  by  railway  and  steamer  within  Japanese 
territory.  Accomodation  in  Tokio  will  also  be 
ample,  for  a  large  new  hotel  is  just  approaching 
completion.  Centrally  situated,  it  contains  sixty 
suites  of  rooms,  and  will  have  a  cuisine  and  cellar 
of  the  best.  Japan,  always  an  enchanting  bourne 
for  the  tourist,  offers  temptations  this  year  that 
should  attract  every  lover  of  art  and  of  its  best 
products,  while  it  cannot  but  prove  a  remarkable 
opportunity  for  those  interested  in  the  intercourse 
between  Japan  and  England  to  initiate  new  mutual 
wants  and  to  prepare  to  supply  them. 

Azabu,  Tokio,  Feb.  4. 


CHAPTER     XXIII. 

THE    JAPANESE    HEARTH. 

I  do  not  remember  that  anybody  has  ever  yet,  in 
describing  Japan,  done  any  sort  of  sufficient  justice 
to  the  immense  and  important  part  borne  by  the 
hibachi  in  the  domestic  life  of  this  people.  Tourists, 
travellers,  and  correspondents  casually,  indeed,  men- 
tion the  article,  as  something  special  to  Japan, 
but  forget  to  say  how  the  entire  existence  of  the 
Japanese  centres  in  this  very  peculiar  little  insti- 
tution. The  hibachi  is  a  fire-box,  of  which  the 
simplest  form  is  that  of  a  square,  or  circular,  or 
oblong  receptacle  of  wood  lined  with  sheet-copper. 
Into  this  a  quantity  of  lime-dust,  or  sifted  ashes, 
is  put,  and  on  the  top  of  that  a  little  pile  of 
lighted  charcoal,  which  burns  slowly  and  steadily 
upon  the  fine  ashes,  giving  out  heat,  but  not  a 
vestige  of  smoke.  This  is  the  primitive  and 
plainest  form  of  the  "  fire-box,"  such  as  will  be 
seen  in  use  for  common  purposes,  at  railway 
stations,  in  Kuruma-sheds,  in  wayside  tea-houses 
and  restaurants,  and  in  unpretentious  shops.  But 
Japanese  skill  and  taste  love  to  lavish  themselves 
on  this  central  piece  of  domestic  furniture,  and 
you    see    hibachis,    accordingly,    of    all    forms   and 


THE  JAPANESE   HEARTH.  321 

materials.  Some  are  made  of  hammered  copper, 
or  brass,  or  iron,  with  patterns  delicately  and 
beautifully  beaten  out  of  the  burnished  metal. 
Some  I  have  seen  in  great  houses  contrived  from 
the  root  of  a  vast  tree,  the  gnarled  and  knotted 
timber  being  laboriously  hollowed  out  and  lined 
with  copper,  and  the  exterior  carefully  polished 
to  bring  forth  the  beauty  of  the  grain.  These 
fantastic  "fire-boxes"  are  in  much  vogue  for 
country  villas  and  smoking-rooms.  The  hibachi 
for  daily  home  service  must  be  useful  before  all 
things,  and  the  general  shape  of  it  is,  as  I  have 
said,  that  of  an  oblong  box,  about  two  feet  in 
length  by  fourteen  inches  broad  and  a  foot  deep. 
Two-thirds  of  the  length  of  this  structure  is 
occupied  by  the  fire-box  proper,  lined  with  metal, 
and  laid  with  carefully  sifted  ashes,  upon  which 
glows  the  little  nest  of  red  Hum  /-sticks.  Upon 
the  top  of  that  will  be  placed  a  four-legged  frame 
of  iron,  which  supports  the  bronze  kettle,  the 
teapot,  and,  at  need,  a  small  gridiron  of  wire,  or 
a  glazed  frying-pan  in  which  fish  are  stewed  or 
fried,  or  else  the  earthen  dish  whereupon  the 
inmates  roast  their  bean-cakes,  or  the  slices  of 
daikon.  The  remainder  of  the  hibachi  is  made 
up  of  clever  little  drawers,  and  unsuspected  com- 
partments, where  the  lady  of  the  house — whose 
special  possession  the  "  fire-box  "  is  —  keeps  a 
world  of  things  which  profit  by  being  dry,  her 
biscuits,  her  paper  for  accounts,  needles  and  thread, 
kanzdshis,    combs,   tea,    chop-sticks,    and    what    not. 

Thus   this    piece   of    furniture   is    at    one    and    the 

24 


322 


SEAS  AND  LANDS. 


same  moment  the  household  hearth,  the  larder, 
the  work-box,  the  writing-case,  the  toilette-stand, 
the  kitchen,  and  the  natural  centre  for  the  family 
of  conversation,  employment,  and  needlework.  But 
it   may  combine  these  with  ever   so  much  beauty 


GIRL   OF   THE   YOSHIWARA. 


and  richness  of  external  decoration,  and  it  is 
common  to  see  the  hibachi  built  of  very  beautiful 
striped  and  variegated  woods,  its  drawers  and  com- 
partments   delicately  adorned  with  chased   handles 


TIIK    MlSl'MK 

and  on    :i  1:1:    ii  i:.\  i>    \    noon  ok   r.i.ri: 


THE  JAPANESE   HEARTH.  323 

and  plaeques  of  silver  or  bronze  metal,  while 
neat  little  mats  of  plaited  grass  or  embroidered 
velvet  are  laid  upon  the  highly  honourable  part 
where  the  teapot  of  porcelain  and  the  pretty  small 
painted  teacups  usually  stand.  Sometimes  a  table 
for  writing  and  working  is  ingeniously  blended 
with  the  other  conveniences,  and  there  is  one 
special  form  of  hibachi,  used  for  imparting  heat 
in  cold  weather,  which  is  closed  in  with  a  lattice 
of  light  woodwork  all  round.  You  can  cover 
this  over  with  futons,  or  bed-rugs,  and  warm  the 
hands  and  feet  in  the  confined  glow,  or,  on  frosty 
nights,  you  can  put  it  boldly  and  bodily  under  the 
bed-clothes,  and  derive  from  it  all  the  advantage 
of  a  permanent  warming-pan.  Then  there  is  the 
tobacco-mono,  another  special  form  of  the  hibachi, 
but  entirely  devoted  to  the  eternal  kiseru,  the 
small  pipe  of  brass  and  bamboo  in  which  the 
Japanese  perpetually  indulge.  This  is  a  kind  of 
smaller  fire-box,  with  a  bed  of  ashes  for  the  ever- 
glowing  charcoal,  a  couple  of  drawers  for  the 
delicately  cut  fragrant  tobacco,  and  a  little  com- 
partment where  the  brass  and  silver  tipped  pipes 
repose  while  not  in  use.  There  is  a  cover,  with 
an  opening,  for  the  charcoal,  and  a  handle  by 
Avhich  the  tobacco-mono  is  carried  about ;  for  it 
accompanies  the  owner  everywhere — to  bed,  to 
breakfast,  to  dinner — on  all  occasions ;  and  next 
to  the  sliding  of  the  shoji,  the  most  universal 
sound  heard,  perhaps,  in  Japan,  is  the  tapping  of 
the  little  kiseru  on  the  edge  of  the  tobacco-box, 
when,  for  the    hundreth  time    during  the  day,  the 


324  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

little  pipe  has  been  filled,  and  lighted,  and  the 
one  full  puff — "ippuku" — taken,  which  satisfies 
the  refined  and  delicate  desires  of  the  Nippon 
smoker. 

You    must    realise    then,    or    try    to    realise,   the 
prodigious   import   and   positive  universality  of  the 


AT   THE    YOSIIIWAKA. 


domestic  "fire-box"  in  Japan.  There  must  exist 
at  least  as  many  as  the  inhabitants  of  the  country — 
that  is  to  say,  about  4( ),()()( ),()()().  Every  shop  has 
one  in  front  of  its  shelves  and  hales,  and  every  tea- 


THE  JAPANESE   HEARTH.  325 

house  or  hotel  keeps  them  by  the  score,  because  the 
first  thing  brought  to  a  traveller,  or  customer,  on 
arrival  is  the  hibachi,  either  to  warm  him,  or  to 
furnish  a  chronic  light  for  his  pipe,  or  simply  from 
habit  and  hospitality.  The  tradesmen  and  those 
who  come  to  buy  at  his  shop  gather  over  the  bronze 
fire-box  to  discuss  prices,  and  at  a  dinner-party  a 
hibachi  is  placed  between  every  pair  of  guests.  In 
the  interior  of  an  ordinary  Japanese  home,  however, 
one  sees  the  national  institution  in  its  simplest  use. 
There  it  stands,  always  lighted,  at  least  during  the 
autumn  and  winter  months,  and  in  its  copper  re- 
ceptacle the  bed  of  ashes,  and  the  glowing  nest  of 
genial  fire.  It  is  good  to  see  with  what  dainty  care 
the  Japanese  dame  will  pick  up,  stick  by  stick,  and 
fragment  by  fragment,  the  precious  pieces  of  char- 
coal which  have  fallen  from  off  the  central  fire ! 
With  what  delicate  skill  she  builds  a  little  dome 
or  peak  over  the  tiny  crater  of  the  domestic  volcano, 
arranging  and  distributing !  With  what  silent  in- 
terest everybody  watches  her  purseup  her  lips,  ami 
gently  but  persistently  blow  upon  the  sleeping  fire, 
till  the  scarlet  life  of  it  creeps  from  the  central 
spark  into  every  grey  and  black  bit  of  the  heap,  and 
the  hibachi  is  once  more  in  high  activity.  Then 
the  hands  of  the  household  meet  over  the  kindly 
warmth,  for  this  is  the  only  "hearth"  of  the  domi- 
cile, and  when  the  palms  and  wrists  are  warm  all 
the  body  will  be  comfortable.  There  are  little  square 
cushions  laid  all  around  the  fire-box,  and  upon  this 
we  kneel  and  chat.  You  must  drop  nothing  into 
that  sacred  centre  in  the  way  of  cigar-ends,  stumps 


326 


SEAS  AND  LANDS. 


of  matches,  or  cigarette-paper  ;  it  is  the  Vestal  Fire, 
not  to  be  violated  by  disrespectful  fuel.  But  you 
may  put  the  tctsubin  on  it,  and  boil  the  "  honourable 
hot  water,"  or  fry  peas  over  it,  or  cook  little  fishes, 
or  stew  slices  of  orange  and  persimmon,  and  in  fact 
treat  it  as  a  supplementary  kitchen  to  the  larger 
and  permanent  hearth  established  in  the  daidokoro. 
Ever  now  and  then  the  mistress  of  the  house,  who 


INN-SERVANTS. 


has  the  seat  of  honour  before  it,  controlling  the 
supply  of  sumi  and  the  brass  hashi,  with  which  the 
fire-box  is  tended,  will  delicately  and  economically 
pick  out  with  them  from  the  small  basket  at  her 
side,  a  nodule  or  two  more  of  the  charcoal,  and 
place  these  on  the  sinking  fire,  treating  her  sumi- 
halco,  or  charcoal-store,  as  elegantly  and  sparingly 
as  a  London  lady  would  the  sugar-basin. 


THE  JAPANESE   HEARTH.  327 

Confess  that  it  is  a  mark  of  the  refined  natural  life 
of  this  people,  that  they  have  thus  for  their  family 
hearth-stove  a  pretty  piece  of  cabinet-work  lined  with 
copper,  and  for  their  coal-cellar  a  tiny  flower-basket 
rilled  with  a  handful  of  clean  and  picked  charcoal ! 
Yon  might  place  the  entire  affair  on  the  toilette 
table  of  a  duchess,  and  not  spoil  or  soil  one  lappet 
of  her  laces,  or  leave  one  speck  of  dust  upon  her 
mirrors  and  her  dressing- hags.  Japan  in  her  social 
aspects  is  already,  in  truth,  half  understood  when 
the  universal  use  ami  the  graceful  utility  of  the 
hibachi  have  thoroughly  become  comprehended. 

One  happy  consequence  of  this  omnipresent 
employment  of  charcoal  for  domestic  and  culinary 
purposes  is  that  Japanese  cities,  villages,  and 
abodes  are  perfectly  free  from  smoke.  The  clear 
air  is  always  unpolluted  by  those  clouds  of  defacing 
and  degrading  black  smuts  which  blot  out  our 
rare  sunshine  in  London,  and  help  to  create  its 
horrible  fogs.  There  is  no  doubt  a  peril  of  a 
special  kind  in  the  fire-box.  If  not  supplied  from 
the  kitchen  hearth  with  glowing  coals  already  past 
their  first  firing,  there  will  be  a  constant  efflux  of 
carbonic  acid  gas  into  the  room,  which  will  kill 
you,  subtly  and  slowly,  as  certainly  as  an  over- 
dose of  opium.  In  European  apartments  this 
would  prove  a  very  serious  danger,  but  the  shoji 
and  sliding  doors  of  wood  let  in  so  many  little 
sources  of  ventilation — and  the  rats,  moreover, 
take  care  to  gnaw  so  many  holes  in  the  paper  of 
the  mado — that  the  fatal  gas  becomes  dispelled 
or   diluted    as    fast    as    it    is    created.      Nevertheless 


328 


SEAS  AND  LANDS. 


accidents  occur,  especially  in  bath-rooms  where 
the  fune,  or  great  tub,  is  heated  by  a  large  mass 
of  raw  charcoal,  and  there  was  a  case  a  week  ago 
in  Yokohama  of  a  sea-captain  found  dead  in  the 
furo-do  of  his  hotel.  The  Japanese  are  too  wise 
to  sleep  with  a  large  hibachi  in    their  apartments. 


A    JAPANESE    LADY. 


They  know  well  that  the  deadly  gas,  being  heavy, 
sinks  to  the  bottom  of  the  room,  where  their  futons 
are  spread  upon  the  mats ;  and  they  either  put 
the   fire-box  outside,  or  are   careful    to   see   that  it 


THE  JAPANESE   HEARTH.  329 

has    "honourable    mature    charcoal"    burning     low- 
in  it. 

I  imagine  that  the  use  of  sumi,  so  cleanly  and  so 
elegant,  is  of  comparatively  modern  date  in  Japan. 
In  old  days  it  seems  that  the  people  burned  wood, 
and  perhaps  even  coal,  just  as  they  got  both  from 
their  forests  and  mines..  Lately  I  came  upon  a 
legend  in  Japanese  history  concerning  the  very 
ancient  Mikado  Xintoku,  which  appears  to  con- 
firm and  illustrate  this,  and  since  I  was  sufficiently 
struck  by  the  anecdote  to  put  it  into  verse,  I  will 
conclude  these  superficial  remarks  upon  the  family 
fires  of  Japanese  domiciles  by  appending  the  little 
story — 

THE  EMPEROR'S  BREAKFAST. 

Fifteen  centuries  ago 
Emperor  Xintok  of  Japan 
Walked  upon  his  roof  at  daybreak, 
Watching  if  the  toils  began 
Well,  to  gild  the  cedar  frieze 
Of  his  palace  galleries  ; 
Well,  to  nail  the  silver  plates 
On  his  inner  palace  gates  ; 
For  the  Queen  would  have  it  so 
Fifteen  hundred  years  ago! 

Walking  -on  his  roof,  he  spied 

Streets  and  lanes  and  quarters  teeming* 

Saw  his  city  spreading  wide. 

Ah!   but  mean  and  sad  of  seeming 

Show  those  lowly  wooden  huts 

Underneath  the  King's  house  gleaming; 

Though  each  humble  wicket  shuts 


33°  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

One  world  out  and  one  world  in, 

That  so  great  and  this  so  small. 

Yet,  to  the  poor  hearts  within, 

The  little  world  their  all  in  all ! 

Just  then  the  waiting-maids  bore  through 

The  breakfast  of  King  Nintoku. 

Quoth  the  Emperor — gazing  round — 

"  Wherefore,  when  my  meats  abound, 

See  I  not  much  smoke  arise 

From  these  huts  beneath  mine  eyes  ?  " 

Chimneys  jut  into  the  air, 

Yet  no  chimney-reek  is  there 

Telling  that  the  household  pot 

Bubbles  glad  with  gohan  *  hot. 

Gild  me  no  more  galleries, 

If  my  people  pay  the  gold  ! 

Let  my  gates  unplated  go, 

If  the  silver  leaves  them  cold  ! 

This  city  of  all  tax  I  ease, 

For  three  years  !     We  decree  it  so ! 

From  all  huts  there  shall  be  smoke  !  " 

Thus  the  Emperor  Nintok  spoke. 

Sped  three  years.     Upon  his  roof 
The  Monarch  paced  again.     Aloof 
His  Empress  hung,  ill-pleased  to  see 
The  snow  drip  through  her  gallery, 
The  gates  agape  with  cracks,  and  grey 
For  wear  and  weather  :  "  Consort !  say 
If  so  the  Emperor  of  Japan 
Should  lodge,  like  some  vile  peasant  man, 
Whose  thatch  leaks  for  a  load  of  straw  ?  " 
"  Princess  august,  what  recks  a  flaw," 
Nintok  replied,  "  in  gate  or  wall, 
When,  far  and  wide,  those  chimneys  all 

*  Boiled  rice. 


THE  JAPANESE   HEARTH.  331 

Fling  their  blue  house-flag?  to  the  sky, 
Where  the  gods  count  them?    Thou  and  I 
Take  part  in  all  the  poor  folks'  health — 
The  people's  weal  makes  prince's  wealth  !  " 

There  is  yet  another  form  of  the  hibachi,  in  the 
guise  of  a  little  portable  fire-box,  called  the  kwairo, 
which  is  made  of  tin,  in  the  shape  of  a  curved  cigar 
case,  with  a  little  sliding  lid  ;  the  tin  is  perforated 
with  small  holes,  and  then  covered  with  a  coat 
of  muslin.  Small  sticks  of  powdered  charcoal  are 
furnished  with  the  kieairo,  and  you  light  one  of 
these,  pop  it  in  the  case,  close  the  lid,  and  wrap  the 
little  fire-box  in  a  cloth  or  handkerchief.  The  thin 
muslin  cover  admits  the  air,  while  it  prevents  the 
dust  of  the  charcoal  from  escaping,  and,  with  one 
of  these  little  inventions  thrust  into  the  bosom  or 
the  sleeve,  the  coldest  journey  by  kuruma  or  railway 
will  be  stripped  of  its  terrors. 

The  regulations  have  been  published  for  the  first 
elections  in  Japan  of  the  new  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, and  it  may  be  interesting  to  many  in  Eng- 
land to  note  the  commencement  of  tne  youngest 
Parliamentary  system  in  the  world.  The  Empire  is 
divided  into  cities,  fu,  and  prefectures,  ken,  on  the 
principle  of  equal  representation,  as  far  as  possible, 
for  equal  numbers  of  the  population.  The  three 
chief  cities  return  29  members  out  of  a  total  of 
300,  Tokio  having  the  lion's  share  (12),  and  Osaka 
coming  next  with  10.  Of  the  42  prefectures  by 
which  the  remaining  271  members  are  returned,  the 
most  largely  represented  are  Niigata  (13),  Hyogo 
(12),  Aichi  (11),  Hiroshima  (10),  and  Fukuoka  (9), 


332 


SEAS  AND  LANDS. 


while  those  returning  the  smallest  number — namely, 
three  each — are  Miyaski,  Tottori,  and  Yamanashi. 
The  qualifications  for  electors  are  that  they  must  be 
Japanese  subjects,  and  have  attained  the  full  age  of 
twenty-five  years  before  the  day  of  voting,  which  is 
settled  for  July  1;  also  that  they  must  have  fixed 
their  permanent  residence  in  the  city  or  prefecture, 
and  actually  resided  there  for  not  less  than  one  year 
previous  to  the  date  of  drawing  up  the  electoral  list. 
That  date  being  April  1,  whereas  the  election  day 


THE   KAOO. 


is  July  1,  the  residence  qualification  really  extends 
to  a  period  of  fifteen  months.  The  property  qualifi- 
cation is  high.  An  elector  must  have  property  in 
land,  or  an  income  accruing  from  other  sources  so 
large  as  to  involve  a  payment  of  direct  national 
taxes  to  the  extent  of  fifteen   yen   yearly.     When 


THE  JAPANESE   HEARTH.  $$$ 

the  Law  of  Election  was  promulgated,  some  dis- 
cussion arose  as  to  the  interpretation  of  the  term 
"  direct  national  taxes,"  but  all  doubt  is  removed 
by  the  supplementary  ordinance,  where  land-tax  and 
income-tax  are  alone  recognised.  It  thus  appears 
that  to  exercise  the  franchise  a  man  must  possess 
either  land  of  the  taxable  value  of  (500  yen,  or  an 
income  of  1000  yen  annually  ;  and,  further,  that 
in  the  case  of  land  he  must  have  been  paying  such 
a  tax  for  a  full  period  of  one  year,  and  in  the  case 
of  income  for  a  full  period  of  three  years,  before 
the  day  on  which  the  electoral  roll  is  made  up. 

You  will  see  that  the  suffrage  in  Japan  is  even 
more  limited  than  that  under  Servius  Tullius,  and 
that  all  your  bygone  struggles  about  compound 
householders,  lodgers,  and  the  residuum,  have  still 
to  come.  Nor  do  the  Japanese  intend  to  tolerate 
disturbance,  irregularity,  or  any  pretence  at  secret 
voting.  In  the  first  place,  admission  to  the  voting- 
booth  will  only  be  permitted  to  holders  of  entrance 
tickets.  On  these  entrance  tickets,  which  are  to 
be  distributed  to  the  electors  at  least  .five  days 
before  the  time  of  voting,  the  name  of  the  elector 
and  his  number  on  the  electoral  list  will  be  in- 
scribed, and  the  ticket  must  be  handed  by  the 
elector  to  the  doorkeeper  of  the  voting  booth  at 
the  moment  of  admission.  Should  the  place  be 
inconveniently  crowded,  the  electors  will  receive 
tickets  regulating  the  order  in  which  they  are  to 
vote.  Each  elector,  after  having  gained  admittance 
to  the  booth  by  means  of  a  ticket,  gives  his  name 
to  the  presiding  official,  the  Headman  of  the  district, 


334  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

with  whom  are  associated  not  fewer  than  two,  and 
not  more  than  five,  witnesses,  nominated  by  the 
Headman  three  days  previously.  The  Headman, 
having  con^ared  the  name  with  the  electoral  list, 
hands  a  voting  paper  to  the  elector,  who  is  required 
to  inscribe  thereon  the  name  of  the  person  ]ie  votes 
for,  together  with  his  own  name  and  residence,  and 
to  affix  his  stamp.  The  voting  paper  is  then  placed 
in  the  ballot-box,  a  recej:>tacle  having  two  lids,  each 
fitted  with  a  different  key,  one  key  being  in  the 
custody  of  the  Headman,  the  other  in  that  of  the 
witnesses.  The  polling  being  over,  the  ballot-box 
is  shut,  and  on  the  next  day  is  forwarded,  in  charge 
of  one  or  more  witnesses,  to  the  district  office  of  the 
place  of  polling.  There  it  is  opened  by  the  chairman 
of  election,  with  whom  is  associated  a  committee 
of  not  fewer  than  three  and  not  more  than  seven, 
chosen  from  among  the  witnesses  assembling  from 
the  different  voting  places.  It  is  evident  that  each 
elector's  manner  of  voting  will  be  virtually  public 
property,  since  his  name  and  the  way  in  which  he 
cast  his  vote  will  be  known  not  only  to  the  Head- 
men of  districts,  but  also  to  the  committees  of 
electors. 

However,  there  is  nothing  like  beginning  quietly, 
and  the  substantial  landowners  and  moneyed  men, 
who  alone  will  be  entitled  to  vote,  may  be  trusted, 
T  think,  to  return  a  Japanese  House  of  Commons, 
which,  during  its  four  years  of  session,  will  be 
reasonable  and  moderate.  Foreigners  and  priests 
are  specially  excluded  from  becoming  candidates, 
but  the   Buddhists   of  all   sects    are   now    engaged 


THE  JAPANESE  HEARTH.  335 

in  making  a  vigorous,  yet,  as  I  expect,  a  perfectly 
vain  protest  against  this  exclusion. 

You  will  observe  that  every  elector  is  required 
to  stamp  his  voting  paper  with  his  own  seal.  That 
is  how  everybody  signs  receipts  and  such  like  docu- 
ments in  this  country,  where  each  person  carries  a 
delicately  cut  ivory  signet  in  a  little  box  of  the 
same  material,  which  also  contains  a  small  recep- 
tacle filled  with  moist  vermilion.  You  lift  the  little 
seal,  engraved  with  Japanese  characters,  from  its 
place,  touch  it  with  the  vermilion,  and  impress  upon 
paper  or  parchment  the  flower,  the  leaf,  the  name, 
the  Nippon  or  Chinese  symbol,  or  the  little  pro- 
verb which  is  your  characteristic  mark.  Mine 
bears  the  maxim  in  the  vernacular,  "  Wataru  sekai 
til  oni  wa  nashi"  which  being  interpreted  is,  "  In 
going  round  the  world  you  will  not  meet  one  devil." 
Such  has  been  my  own  experience,  for  everywhere 
on  this  globe  there  are  kindness,  goodwill,  and 
fellowship  to  be  found  by  him  who  brings  the  same 
commodities  in  exchange. 

Azabu,  Tokio,  Feb.  17. 


THE   AUTHOR'S   "  HAN." 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

"  KWAJI  !    KWAJI  !" 

We  have  assisted  lately — with  great  concern,  if 
with  much  interest — at  two  extensive  conflagrations 
in  this  city.  Almost  all*  the  houses  in  Tokio  are 
built  of  wood.  Far  and  wide,  from  any  of  the  many 
eminences  of  the  capital,  you  may  see  interminable 
streets,  lanes,  and  crowded  blocks,  stretching  away 
in  one  direction  towards  the  sea,  in  another  towards 
the  hills,  all  alike  roofed  with  black  and  white  tiles, 
all  alike — or  at  least  ninety-five  out  of  the  hundred — 
put  together  with  posts,  and  beams,  and  joists,  and 
frames  of  the  universal  white  pine.  In  consequence 
of  this  style  of  architecture,  Tokio,  like  all  other 
towns  and  cities  of  Japan,  is  extremely  inflammable, 
and  from  time  to  time  a  conflagration  breaks  out  in 
some  densely-populated  centre,  and  sweeps  away  the 
little  dwellings  by  the  score  and  the  hundred,  some- 
times even  by  the  thousand.  The  fear  of  this  hangs 
perpetually  over  all  our  chds,  or  districts.  Every- 
where you  see  rising  high  in  the  air  the  double1 
ladder,  on  the  top  of  which  a  fireman  is  perched, 
with  his  legs  over  the  cross-beam,  and  by  his  side 
suspended  a  large  bronze  bell,  which  he  strikes  with 
a  hammer  when  the    fatal  glare  of  flame   and   the 

336 


"KWAJII   KIVAJII"  337 

rolling  volumes  of  smoke  announce  the  reappear- 
ance of  the  enemy.  You  can  tell  by  the  number  of 
strokes  on  the  bell  which  is  the  quarter  attacked, 
if  you  only  know  how  the  chos  are  numbered, 
for  the  Hansho,  or  fire-gong,  strikes  the  figure  in 
separate  and  solemn  beats.  If  it  be  a  case  ofproxi- 
mus  Ucaleyon — of  next-door  neighbours,  so  to  speak 
— standing  in  danger,  there  will  be  much  commotion 
in  the  district ;  but  the  announcement  of  a  distant 
blaze  attracts  little  notice.  Sometimes,  however, 
especially  at  night,  the  lurid  reflection  from  the  sky. 
and  the  dark  clouds  of  smoke  obscuring  moon  and 
stars,  denote  a  really  serious  conflagration,  and  then 
a  great  many  of  us — I  mean  of  my  fellow-citizens 
in  Tokio — flock  and  scurry  to  the  spot,  anxious  to 
see,  and,  if  it  may  be,  perhaps  to  help. 

The  first  of  the  two  fires  broke  out  in  Akasaka, 
a  neighbouring  quarter,  and  when  we  arrived  on  the 
spot  the  flames  were  raging  over  the  only  portion 
of  the  large  block  of  dwellings  which  they  had  not 
yet  devoured.  A  high  wind  had  been  blowing,  and 
the  little  hand-engines  of  the  Japanese  could  do 
next  to  nothing  against  the  fierce  wall  of  fire  which 
swept  through  and  over  the  small,  fragile  abodes. 
On  the  alarm  being  given,  the  soldiers — belonging 
to  the  Imperial  Guard — march  to  the  spot,  and  there 
is  a  rush  on  the  part  of  the  various  lire  brigades. 
each  of  them  under  different  management.  These 
carry  flags,  with  badges  and  various  devices  inscribed 
upon  them,  as  well  as  curiously-shaped  posts  of 
painted  wood,  and  the  object  is  to  get  to  the  scene 
of  action  earliest,  and  to  plant  the  company's  banner 


338  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

as  far  forward  as  possible  upon  some  house-roof,  so 
as  to  establish  credit  and  rights  of  priority.  But,  of 
course,  the  small  machines  which  they  carry  cannot 
budge  from  the  well  which  supplies  them  with  water, 
nor  can  the  hand-levers,  however  willingly  worked, 
propel  the  fluid  very  far  through  the  hose.  In  conse- 
quence, the  gallant  Japanese  firemen  have  generally 
to  wait  for  the  flames  to  come  to  them,  and  then 
they  squirt  vigorously  upon  them  for  awhile,  mostly 
in  vain,  until,  to  save  their  engine  and  themselves, 
they  must  retreat,  scorched  and  blackened.  There 
is  no  lack  of  courage  and  devotion  in  these  good 
fellows.  Clad  in  suits  of  thick  quilted  cotton,  with 
hoods  or  helmets  of  the  same  dark  blue  and  white 
material,  you  see  them  affront  the  flames,  like  veri- 
table salamanders,  and  the  great  black  holes  burned 
in  their  haori  show  palpably  enough  that  they  have 
not  spared  for  exertion.  A  Japanese  house,  how- 
ever, is  as  inflammable  as  a  kitchen  fire  laid  for 
lighting.  The  paper  shoji,  the  rain-shutters  (mado), 
and  the  thin  partition  walls,  are  all  as  dry  as  tinder, 
with  the  perpetual  inside  warmth  of  the  hibachi  ;  and 
once  kindled,  the  little  residence  becomes  a  bonfire 
in  five  minutes.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are  very 
easily  pulled  down,  and  the  efforts  of  the  firemen 
are  generally  directed  towards  thus  making  a  vacant 
space  in  front  of  the  flame*s.  The  self-possession  of 
the  residents  is  remarkable,  and  due,  no  doubt,  to 
the  fact  that  few  or  none  of  them  own  the  dwellings 
which  they  inhabit.  As  soon  as  they  have  removed 
their  few  belongings,  they  seem  rather  to  enjoy  the 
spectacle  of  the  scarlet  tongues  licking  up  a  large 


"KWAJI!    KWAJI!"  339 

part  of  their  city,  and  the  black  smoke  making  great 
strange  clouds  in  the  sky.     But  then  comes  for  some 
of  them  a  "  bad  quarter  of  an  hour,"  when  the  con- 
flagration rolls  near,  and  the  sparks  begin  to  lodge 
and  crackle  all  over  their  roofs  and  doors.     The  lire- 
men   naturally  want  to  pull  the  place  down  to  the 
ground,  and  the  tenants  as  naturally  wish  to  wait, 
hoping  that  a  gust  of  wind  from  a  different  quarter, 
or  a  heavy  fall  of  rain  may  spare  their  abode.   Hereon 
ensues  a   very   animated  discussion  in  the  midst  of 
the    wild  scene,  which   generally   ends   by   firemen, 
tenants,  and  all  around  chopping  and  tearing  at  the 
little  domicile,  until   it  conies  toppling  to  the  earth 
in  a  dusty  ruin  of  beams,  tiles,  planks,  and  framing. 
When  this  devastation  has   continued    for    about 
an  hour,  the  sides   of  the  neighbouring  streets  will 
be  lined  thick  and  deep  with  the  humble  properties 
salvaged  from  the  flames.     They  are  all  of  the  same 
order,  and  of  an  almost  pathetic  simplicity.    The  gar- 
ments  of  the    household    are    the    chief  objects    of 
anxiety.     These — particularly  the  kimono,  obi,  and 
eri-maki    of  the  woman    and    children — are  always 
kept  very  carefully  in  the  tansu,  or  chests  of  drawers, 
which   the  Japanese  so  highly  prize.     They  are  an 
extremely  tidy  people,  and  fold,  brush,  and  put  away 
their  cherished  dresses  with  a  neatness  which   would 
charm  and  teach  even  an  English  country  lady.      At 
the  first  real  alarm  the  tonsil  are  locked  and   carried 
outside,  either    to  the    house  of    the   nearest    friend 
who  is  in  a  safer   position,  or  to  the  side  of  the  road, 
where  the  mother  or  grandmother  is  placed  in  charge, 
and,  with  the  babies  of  the  establishment  around  her 


34o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

— also  very  promptly  and  tenderly  salvaged — calmly 
smokes  her  pipe,  lighted  from  some  convenient  burn- 
ing fragment  of  a  neighbour's  abode.  Next  to  their 
wardrobes,  the  desire  is  to  save  the  mats  (tatami), 
which  are  easily  taken  up  and  removed,  and,  after 
this,  the  sliding  shutters  of  frame  and  paper,  the 
hibachi  and  the  Buddha  pictures,  and  the  dressing 
and  sewing  boxes  will  be  hurriedly  caught  up  and 
added  to  the  family  ruins  stacked  beside  the  gutter. 
In  the  middle  of  the  conflagration,  or  of  the  charred 
ruins  it  has  caused,  stand  up  the  few  stone  or  brick- 
built  "  go-downs  "  of  the  locality,  like  islands  in  a 
fiery  sea.  A  good  number  of  small  valuables  will 
have  been  deposited  in  these  by  neighbours,  and 
there  is  in  many  houses  a  little  receptacle,  either 
underground  or  made  of  masonry,  where  anything 
particularly  precious  can  be  stored.  But  really  no- 
body in  the  quarter  seemed  to  own  anything  that 
could  be  called  precious,  and  I  doubt  if  a  London 
marine  store-keeper  would  have  given  half  a  sove- 
reign for  any  single  pile  of  household  goods  which 
we  saw.  The  scene  at  such  a  lire  is  indescribable, 
unless  you  know  the  population  and  the  picturesque 
byways  of  a  Japanese  city.  The  bustling  little 
firemen  in  their  quilted  coats,  the  waving  Hags,  the 
little  noisy  but  ineffective  engines  whisking  about 
on  hand-carts  or  on  the  shoulders  of  coolies,  the 
stream  of  people  carrying  our  boxes  and  mats,  and 
the  counter-stream  jostling  along  to  see  or  to  assist, 
the  self-important  police  and  soldiers,  the  placid 
amusement  of  the  citizens,  till  their  own  time  comes; 
the  odd  things  that  turn  up  from    the  houses,  the 


^KWAJI!   KWAJI!"  341 

air  thick  with  a  black  snow  of  paper  shoji  burn- 
ing; the  chatter,  the  clatter,  the  universal  good-will, 
but  equally  universal  indiscipline  and  laissez  faire, 
make  a  Tokio  fire  something  to  see  and  remember. 
Happily,  not  many  lives  are  ever  lost.  Upper  stories 
are  rare,  and  there  are  few  places  in  a  Japanese 
dwelling  where  you  might  not  make  an  extemporary 
door  with  a  strong  push  of  the  shoulder  or  a  pocket- 
knife. 

The  second  of  the  two  lars-e  conflagrations  took 
place  at  Doboc/w  Mita,  in  the  Shiba  district,  near 
our  hill,  and  destroyed,  before  it  burnt  itself  out, 
nearly  1000  dwellings.  It  was  curious  in  going 
afterwards  over  the  space  thus  cleared  to  note  how 
completely  a  whole  Japanese  street  will  disappear. 
The  houses,  containing  no  brick  or  metal  work,  burn 
completely  away,  except  the  charred  debris  which 
the  tiles  extinguish  and  partly  save  when  they  come 
down  with  a  crash  at  last.  Amid  the  ruins  there 
will  be  little  or  nothing  to  show  they  were  human 
habitations,  except  a  broken  sake  bottle  or  two  and 
a  singed  broom.  Yet  the  great  heat  of  the  flames 
as  they  sweep  over  is  shown  by  the  clay  under  the 
floors  burnt  into  red-brick  stuff.  No  sooner  are  the 
flames  extinguished  than  the  energetic  and  light- 
hearted  Japanese  stick  up  a  paper  tablet  to  notify 
to  whom  the  dwelling  belonged,  and  go  to  work  to 
set  it  up  again.  They  do  this  with  such  rapidity 
that  instances  have  been  known  of  dwellings  re- 
erected  on  the  ruins,  which  have  been  consumed 
by  the  same  conflagration  suddenly  taking  a  new 
turn.     The    neighbourly    kindness    and    the   strong 


342  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

bond  between  relatives  and  friends  which  dis- 
tinguish the  Japanese  people  come  out  well  on 
these  occasions.  The  three  or  four  thousand  persons 
suddenly  evicted  by  this  second  fire  had  all,  some- 
how, found  temporary  shelter  on  the  same  night, 
although  the  Shiba  schoolroom  in  Shimoricho  had 
to  be  thrown  open  for  the  reception  of  some  of  the 
sufferers.  A  public-spirited  citizen,  Mr.  Makino  of 
Kami  Nibancho,  generously  gave  six  houses  rent 
free  for  thirty  days  to  others ;  and  almost  by  that 
time  no  doubt  the  quarter  will  be  nearly  rebuilt 
with  new  dwellings,  destined — like  most  of  the 
houses  in  Tokio,  for  want  of  good  fire-engines  and 
broader  streets — to  a  repetition  of  the  same  fate. 

Education  in  Japan  is  plentiful,  good,  and  cheap. 
I  lately  visited  a  large  and  excellent  school  here, 
containing  a  thousand  pupils  with  English  and 
Japanese  professors,  privately  managed,  where  the 
students  paid  only  one  yen  per  month,  that  is  to 
say,  about  3s.  4c/.,  for  as  much  learning  of  various 
sorts  as  they  could  imbibe.  A  second  school  which 
we  inspected,  under  the  direction  of  a  Canadian 
mission,  was  devoted  to  young  Japanese  ladies  of 
the  upper  and  professional  classes,  who,  it  seems, 
will  go  anywhere  to  be  instructed  regardless  of 
religious  denomination.  It  was  good  to  see  in  one 
large  hall  about  200  of  these  pretty,  demure,  gentle 
Nippon  girls,  all  working  hard  at  learning  English, 
and  many  of  them  fairly  proficient  in  it.  The  little 
ones,  to  the  number  of  twenty  or  thirty,  sang  us 
some  charming  songs,  and  went  through  some 
graceful    calisthenic    exercises    with    Indian    clubs ; 


"KWAJI!   KWAJI!"  343 

and  certain  of  the  older  maidens  played  to  us  on 
the  piano,  and  recited  passages  of  English  poetry. 
In  return  for  this  I  was  called  upon  to  make  them 
a  little  speech,  and,  knowing  this  beforehand,  I  had 
the  boldness  to  string  together  a  few  sentences  in 
Japanese,  the  English  of  which  I  first  pronounced, 
and  then,  not  without  an  occasional  little  soft 
ripple  of  laughter  from  the  pleasant  audience  at 
my  blunders,  this  bit  of  broken  Japanese,  which 
may  at  least  tell  you  what  the  difficult  language 
looks  like  and  sounds  like  : — 

"  Xihon  bakari,  hoka  no  kuni  wa  nai  to  iu  koto 
nareba — go  chumon-dori !  Hoka  no  kuni  ga  takusan 
atte  wa,  so  wa  ikazu.  Mina  kuni  uchi  Eikok-kuni 
gakumon  wa,  chikara  wa,  lion  wa,  uta  wa,  hito  wa 
ichiban.  Koko  kara  mini,  kuni-ezu  no  ue  ni,  chisai 
gozarimas.  Shi  kashi  Eikok-kuni  honto  ni  ichiban 
okina  gozarimas ;  sore  kara,  Eikok  no  kotoba  no 
benkyo  yoroshii !  Nihonjin  ni  wa  eigo  wo  takusan 
hito  wakarimas — onna  kodomo  de  mo,  ima  mimas — 
takusan  gozarimas!  Eikok-kuni  no  kotoba  wa 
taihen  irikunda  mono  de  gozaimas — domo !  taiso 
muzukashii.  Shikashi  shidai  ni  o  yomi  ni  liana,  ga 
saki,  mi  ga  nari,  kwairaku  no  shurui  ga  oku  mo 
okiku  mo  nam  wakari — kltte  iru  re  shite  mireba. 
Iro  iro  nani-ka  no  sewa  ga  yaketari,  samazama  no 
tsurai  koto  ni  tabitabi,  attari  shite.  Aa  !  Kurushii ! 
Kurushii !  Jitsu  ni,  kono  yo  ga  iya  ni  natta  to  toki- 
doki  omou  koto,  m<>  arimashita  ga.  Bono  toki  ni 
eikok  no  srakumon  no  o  wakari  tanoshimi  ka,  kane 
ka,  kusuri  ka,  sliindai  ka  mo  shiranai." 

All  this  in  mv  English  address  would  be: — 


344  .  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

"  If  only  Japan  existed — if  there  were  no  other 
countries  except  Japan — then,  indeed,  you  could  all 
do  as  you  pleased.  But  there  are  so  many  other 
countries  which  you  must  learn  about,  so  that  this 
is  out  of  the  question.  Of  all  those  countries  there 
is  none  so  famous  or  so  interesting  as  England, 
whether  for  learning,  for  power,  for  books,  for 
poetry  or  for  renowned  men.  To  look  upon  her 
from  this  place,  to  study  her  on  the  map,  she,  no 
doubt,  seems  small,  but  in  reality  she  is  the  largest 
empire  in  all  the  world.  Therefore  to  study  her 
language  is  excellent.  Among  the  people  of  Japan 
there  are  many  who  understand  English,  and,  as  I 
am  glad  to  see  to-day,  many  also  of  Japanese  young 
ladies.  The  grammar  of  English  is,  I  fear,  sadly 
difficult ;  grievously  embarassing,  indeed.  But  at 
the  last  its  study  produces  flowers,  produces  fruit, 
produces  all  kinds  of  pleasures  and  advantages.  It  is 
too  certain  that  in  life  every  sort  of  trouble  must  be 
expected,  when  oftentimes,  without  a  resource,  one 
would  have  to  say  that  life  was  not  worth  living. 
At  such  times,  among  other  solaces,  to  know  English 
may  prove  such  joy,  such  wealth,  such  remedy,  such 
a  possession  as  I  know  not  how  to  describe." 

Our  English  colony  here,  and  the  Europeans 
generally,  are  much  excited  by  the  approaching 
visit  of  their  Royal  Highnesses  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  Conn  aught,  who  are  expected  to  come 
to  Japan  early  in  April.  They  will  be  lodged  at 
the  British  Legation,  which,  we  have  happy  reason 
to  know,  is  a  very  commodious  and  agreeable  place, 
and  in  their    short   but  welcome  sojourn  they  will 


"KWAJI!    KWAJI!"  345 

doubtless  see  enough  of  Japan  to  make  them  wish 
for  a  longer  stay.  Their  Royal  Highnesses  will  be 
fortunate  in  arriving  just  at  the  time  when  the 
blossoms  of  the  cherry-trees — the  great  sight  of 
Japan — begin  to  show  their  beauty  at  Uyeno,  where 
also  a  great  National  and  Metropolitan  Exhibition  is 
about  to  open. 

Azabu,  Tokio,  March  7,  1890. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

DAILY    LIFE. 

Daily  life  with  a  Japanese  family  of  the  middle 
classes  is  a  very  different  existence  from  any  led 
in  the  West,  and  in  many  respects  somewhat 
peculiar  and  interesting.  I  will  try  to  tell  you 
how  they  pass  the  twenty-four  hours,  as  far  as 
indoor  matters  go.  A  sense  of  emptiness  and 
insufficiency  would  be  felt  by  the  Western  house- 
wife in  passing  through  the  six  or  eight  little 
apartments  constituting  a  Japanese  domicile.  The 
snow-pure  mattings  would  please  her,  and  the 
scrupulous  cleanliness  of  the  woodwork  and  of 
the  inner  shoji,  prettily  covered  as  these  are  with 
silver  or  gold  stamped  paper.  And  she  would 
like  the  neat  little  daidokora,  or  kitchen,  with 
its  low  stove  and  quaint  brass  and  copper  nabes 
hung  in  a  shining  row.  But  where  are  the  beds, 
she  would  ask,  and  the  furniture  ?  and  the  stores  ? 
and  the  clothes  ?  and  the  household  linen  ?  As 
for  the  bedding,  it  consists  of  large  quilted  rugs 
of  cotton  which  are  rolled  up  every  morning  and 
put  into  the  todana,  those  concealed  cupboards 
behind  the  shoji.     In   the  same  place,  or  some  odd 

corners,    will    stand    the    tansu,    chests   of  drawers, 

346 


DAILY  LIFE.  347 

which  the  Japanese  carpenters  are  very  skilful  in 
making,  and  in  which  the  bright  and  pretty  kimono, 
the  obi,  the  hizamaki,  and  other  articles  of  dress 
are  very  neatly  laid  away.  There  will  be,  more- 
over, in  the  apartment  the  indispensable  hibachi 
— fire-box — and  near  at  hand  'a  little  glass  cup- 
board to  hold  tea-cups  and  tea,  with,  perhaps,  a 
nuimono,  i.e.,  work-box,  a  little  dressing-case  with 
a  mirror  on  the  top,  and  the  omnipresent  apparatus 
of  wood  and  copper  which  holds  the  tobacco,  the 
pipes,  and  the  ever-lighted  charcoal.  Household 
linen  hardly  exists.  The  Japanese  use  no  sheets 
or  tablecloths;  for  towels  they  have  little  squares 
of  blue  and  white  cotton;  for  dusters  the  feather 
or  paper  brush ;  and  for  handkerchiefs,  napkins, 
&c,  rolls  of  whitey-brown  paper.  As  .for  stores, 
the  bazaars  near  at  hand  supply  them  freshly  with 
daily  necessities,  and  they  keep  very  little  in  the 
larder  except  some  slices  of  da  ikon,  souk1  rice,  and 
sweet  biscuits.  The  man  in  blue,  with  the  copper- 
bound  tubs,  is  always  passing  their  door,  calling 
aloud  "  Honourable  live  fish  !"  Eggs  are  cheap 
and  plentiful  ;  bread  is  never  used  ;  and  the  niuxumc 
easily  brings  home,  in  a  folded  bamboo  or  rape  leaf, 
whatever  else  is  needed  for  the  day.  Rice  is  the 
mainstay,  and  a  huge  quantity  of  it  is  always  kept 
ready  boiled,  needing  only  to  be  warmed  up  or 
mixed  with  hot  tea. 

It  is  bed-time.  The  inmates  have  played  many 
games  at  liana  witli  little  coloured  cards,  or  on  the 
"go"  board,  struggling  to  make  rows  of  five  with 
black    or    white    counters;  or,  if  there   be   children, 


348  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

some  graceful  and  charming  game,  like  "  the  fox 
trap,"  Kitsune  make,  or  the  "  blind  devil."  The 
samisen  has  twangled  to  many  a  tender  or  merry 
song,  and  some  one  at  last  says  " nemui"  "  I  am 
slee2)y."  Then  the  futons  are  brought  out  and  laid 
down  on  the  mats — two  to  lie  upon,  and  two  for 
cover ;  and  the  small  pillows,  makura,  of  polished 
wood  with  rolls  of  paper  on  the  top,  are  placed  at 
the  head  of  the  simple  couch,  along  with  the  tobacco- 
mono  and  the  lamp.  A  Japanese  lady  makes  a  very 
swift  and  easy  toilette  de  nuit.  It  is  not  necessary 
for  her  even  to  retire  for  that  purpose.  Selecting 
from  the  tanzu  a  gaily  coloured  jiban  of  scarlet  or 
yellow  or  crimson  cotton,  and  a  night  kimono  of 
cotton  or  silken  crepe,  she  turns  to  the  wall,  throws 
these  over  her  shoulders,  loosens  her  obi,  and  lets 
fall  her  garments  of  the  day,  substituting  those  of 
the  night  with  an  incredible  and  extremely  modest 
dexterity.  She  binds  the  pretty  cotton  raiment 
loosely  round  her  loins  with  a  soft  silken  girdle, 
and  is  then  ready  for  bed,  pillowing  her  glossy  little 
head,  with  its  elaborate  structure  of  coils,  and  tufts, 
and  silken  cushions,  on  the  makura.  The  house  is 
fastened  up  with  wooden  bolts,  or  tiny  pins  of  iron, 
which  would  make  a  London  burglar  smile ;  and, 
truth  to  tell,  housebreaking  is  not  very  uncommon 
in  Tokio,  where  it  is  always  too  possible,  especially 
now  that  rice  is  so  dear,  to  wake  up  and  find  some 
scoundrel  with  a  sharp  sword  in  his  hand,  and  his 
head  wrapped  in  a  cloth,  who  wants,  and  means  to 
have,  the  loose  cash  in  the  house.  But  there  is,  at 
all   events,  the  protection  of  the  momban,  or  night 


DAILY  LIFE.  349 

watchman,  who  wakes  you  up  perpetually  to  let 
you  know  the  hour,  by  beating  two  slab*  of  wood 
together  ;  and  the  danger  of  fire  is  far  greater  than 
that  of  the  robbers,  the  dorobo.  The  Japanese  arc 
fine  sleepers,  and  the  house  will  probably  be  peaceful 
enough  till  the  cocks  in  the  morning  crow  in  un- 
welcome chorus,  roku-ji-han,  roku-ji-han,  "  half-past 
six  o'clock." 

The  first  thing  a  Japanese  dame  does  upon  waking- 
is  to  reach  out  for  the  tobacco-mono,  to  fill  the  little 
brass  pipe,  to  light,  and  smoke  it.  The  women  do 
this  almost  as  much  as  the  men.  Then  the  Japanese 
lady  rises,  detaches  from  her  arm  the  ude-mamori — a 
little  black  velvet  band,  filled  writh  musk,  which  she 
always  wears — draws  on  the  white  socks,  her  tabi, 
and  repairs  to  the  bath-room,  where  she  brushes  her 
teeth  with  the  yoji,  scrapes  her  tongue  with  its 
flexible  handle,  scrubs  her  little  face  with  a  small 
soft  brush,  dipped  in  perfumed  face  powder,  smooths 
into  proper  place  the  rebellious  jet-black  hairs  which 
have  strayed  during  the  night  from  her  shining 
coiffure,  and  lightly  touches  her  lower  lip  with  a 
little  rouge  from  the  benizara.  Then  she  changes 
her  night  garments  for  those  of  the  day,  a  some- 
what elaborate  process.  First  goes  on  the  imoji,  a 
square  of  cotton  cloth  folded  round  the  waist ;  then 
the  day  jiban,  very  splendid  and  many-coloured, 
of  which,  however,  glimpses  will  only  be  casually 
caught  when  the  wind  blows  aside  the  two  or 
three  outer  kimono.  These,  in  their  turn,  follow, 
and  are  each  folded  over  the  bosom,  from  left  to 
right.     Upon  the  outer  kimono  she  ties,  low  down, 


35° 


SEAS  AND   LANDS. 


a  girdle  of  soft  silk  crepe,  taking  what  the  sailors 
call  "  a  round  turn  "  higher  up  on  the  waist  with 
the  same  piece  of  silk.  This  holds  the  garments 
all  in  place ;  but  over  it,  and  partly  concealing  it, 
is  now  adjusted  the  obi  proper — a  broad  belt  of 
black  or  coloured  satin,  eight  feet  long — which, 
after  being  carefully  doubled  and  wound  round  the 
middle  of  the  body,  is  brought  up  at  the  back, 
through  itself,  so  as   to   hang   in  a    loop    down    to 


:  iiiiiiiJIIiiill^l 

^frtiiiilt^i 

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—:::r 

THE     DAILY    "TUB. 


the  hollow  of  the  knees.  Next,  an  elastic  string — 
obi-dome — is  passed  through  the  loop,  and  lifting 
it  up,  and  being  fastened  in  front,  the  satin  band 
forms  the  broad  lappet  behind  so  distinctive  of 
Japanese  dress,  and  in  front  a  most  convenient  re- 
ceptacle in  the  hollow  of  this  girdle  for  the  purse, 
tobacco-pouch,  watch,  &c. 


DAILY  LIFE.  351 

The  serious  business  of  ablution  is  performed  with 
many,  of  course,  at  the  daily  public  baths.  While 
the  lady  of  the  house  has  thus  been  provisionally 
adorning  herself,  and  dabbling  her  small  hands  in 
a  copper  dish  of  hot  water,  like  a  goldfinch  at  its 
morning  dip,  the  musum'e  has  dusted  the  whole 
house  with  a  paper  flipper,  so  that  not  a  speck  of 
dirt  is  to  be  seen  ;  has  lit  the  charcoal ;  has  set 
the  hibachi ;  has  placed  on  it  the  chased  bronze 
kettle,  the  porcelain  teapot,  and  the  pretty  painted 
cups  ;  has  infused  the  tea  ;  has  warmed  the  rice ; 
has  toasted  the  mochi,  and  perhaps  fried  a  slice  or 
two  of  tai,  or  shake,  or  hobo,  which  are  very  much 
like  our  bass,  salmon,  and  gurnard.  The  Japanese 
take  two  solid  meals  only  in  the  day,  nibbling  more 
or  less  between  whiles  at  cake,  sweetmeats,  and  fruit 
or  nuts.  If  they  are  going  to  the  theatre  they  will 
start  now  to  make  a  whole  day  of  it.  Indoors  the 
principal  occupations  of  the  morning  will  be  endless 
needlework,  strumming  of  the  samisen,  with  calls 
and  chats  from  neighbours,  when  the  etiquette 
observed  is  wonderful  to  see  and  hear.  You  must 
know  these  established  forms  by  heart  to  be  in  the 
mode.  With  foreheads  on  the  mats  the  incomer 
says,  "  Domo"  "I  was  extremely  rude  to  you  on 
the  last  happy  occasion  of  our  meeting."  "  ()li  no!" 
replies  the  hostess  ;  "  it  was  \  who  was  awfully 
ill-mannered;  pray  excuse  me."  This  really  means 
nothing,  as  Japanese  are  never  impolite,  but  is  a 
regular  formula.  Then,  lifting  up  her  nose  a  little, 
but  still  on  hands  and  knees,  the  visitor  says — 
"Thus   again   to    hang    in    your   honourable  eyes   is 


352  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

immense  delight."  He  goes  on  :  "  Sendatte  go  chizo 
ni  narimashita  arigato  moshimas"  which  is  to  say, 
referring  to  some  cup  of  tea  or  fish  sandwich,  par- 
taken together,  "  I  thank  you  for  the  exquisite  feast 
lately  shared  in  your  honourable  society."  The 
hostess,  raising  in  turn  her  face  from  between  her 
hands,  ejaculates,  "  Do  itashimashita  f  "  "  What  is  it 
I  have  done?  For  the  various  favors  of  your 
honourable  assistance,  'tis  I  who  should  thank  you." 

After  this,  the  tea  will  be  offered,  and  the  ladies 
settle  down  on  the  little  square  cushions  to  rapid 
and  rejoicing  chatter  in  their  own  musical  Japanese. 
The  gentlemen  of  the  house  have  gone  off  to  busi- 
ness or  -politics,  or  pleasure,  as  the  case  may  be, 
but  will  return  to  the  evening  meal,  when  the  mats 
will  be  covered  with  little  red  boxes  of  hot  food, 
sent  in  from  the  neighbouring  yadoya,  or  cooked 
at  home.  A  little  hot  sake  and  any  amount  of  hot 
tea  washes  down  the  strange-looking  comestibles, 
and  the  repast  is  always  crowned  with  the  go-han, 
the  great  white  tub  of  steaming  rice. 

In  the  afternoon  they  go  out  for  a  little  walk  or 
some  shopping  in  the  Ginza,  or  to  the  Kwankoban , 
or  ride  in  kurumas,  two  at  a  time,  to  see  if  the 
cherry-blossoms  are  coming  out  at  Uyeno,  or  to 
visit  far-away  relations.  Or  it  is,  perhaps,  an 
ennichi — i.e.,  festival  of  some  popular  Buddhist 
deity,  and  there  will  be  a  little  trip  to  the  temple, 
to  pull  the  twisted  rope  which  calls  the  attention 
of  Heaven,  to  say  the  little  silent  prayer,  and  to 
buy  at  the  booths  round  the  shrine  a  new  hairpin, 
a  picture  of  Buddha  on  gilt  paper,  or  some  toys  for 


DAILY  LIFE. 


the  children.      Life,  as  you  will  see,  is  not  looked 
upon  in  a  very  serious  light  by  my  charming  fellow- 


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INVITATION   TO   THE    EMPERORS    EVENING    PARTY    AT   NAGOYA. 

citizens  hereabout.     I  sometimes,  indeed,  think  they 
must  all  have  been  birds  in  a  previous  existence — 


354 


SEAS  AND   LANDS. 


they  have  the  same  delightful  way  of  doing  nothing 
very  busily,  chirping  through  the  days  of  existence, 
preening  their  bright  feathers,  pecking  for  ever  at 
some  tiny  foolish  food,  and  loving  so  intensely  sing- 
ing, and  sunshine,  and  the  blossoms.  When  they  fall 
ill  the  first  thing  they  do  is  to  swallow,  in  warm 
water,  a  small  picture  of  Buddha  on  soft  paper. 
If  this  fails  to  effect  a  cure — as  will  occasionally 
happen — the  Issha  San    arrives — the  native  physi- 


cian— and  kneels  by  the  side  of  the  futons.  He 
feels  the  small  brown  wrist,  listens  to  the'  little 
troubled  Asiatic  heart,  and  prescribes  some  thing 
that  Western  science  has  taught  him  is  better  than 
Buddha  for  the  stomach-ache.  The  healthy  blood 
and  cheerful  nature  of  Japanese  patients  greatly 
assist  his  prescription,  and  the  sufferer  is  either  very 


DAILY  LIFE. 


:o;> 


soon  well  again,  or  by-and-by  is  gone,  by  way  of 
the  burning  ground,  to  be  a  Hotoke  Sama,  a  freed 
spirit — lighted  by  the  Kadobi,  the  death-lamp, 
which  shows  the  way  leading  towards  the  next 
world,  into  a  better  and  happier  country  than  even 
graceful  and  glad  Japan. 

I  have  just  received  an  invitation  from  the  Em- 
peror's Master  of  the  Household  to  the  grand 
review  of  the  fleet  and  army  at  Xagoya,  at  the  end 
of  this  month.  I  am  to  have  a  horse,  quarters, 
and  the  honour  of  presentation  to  his  Imperial 
Majesty,  and  to  see  the  fighting  forces  of  Japan 
gloriously  arrayed.  The  two  contending  armies 
in  the  approaching  manoeuvres  are  to  be  divided 
as  follows  ; — The  eastern,  or  defending,  force  will 
consist  of  about  16,000  soldiers,  500  officers,  and 
forty-eight  guns.  The  western,  or  attacking,  force 
will  have  an  equal  number  of  officers,  guns,  and  men. 
The  3rd  and  4th  regiments  of  infantry  and  detach- 
ments of  cavalry  and  artillery  of  the  Imperial  Body- 
guard will  act  as  auxiliaries.  Lientenant-General 
Viscount  Takeshima  commands  the  defending,  and 
Lieutenant-General  Kurokawa  the  attacking,  force. 
The  defending  force  will  be  assisted  by  the  men-of- 
war  Kongo,  Chikushi,  Tenryo,  Maya,  and  Ho-xho ; 
and  the  attacking  force  by  the  Nanhva,  Takachiho, 
Fuso,  Musashi,  Katsuragi,  and  Yamato.  Rear- 
Admiral  Fuknshima  will  command  the  former,  and 
Rear-Admiral  Inone  the  latter.  The  programme  of 
the  Emperor's  movements  will  be  as  follows: — On 
the  28th  inst.  he  will  leave  the  capital;  on  the  20th 
he  will  be  at  Nagoya  inspecting  the  arrangements 


356  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

there  ;  and  the  next  day  he  will  proceed  to  the  port 
of  Handa  on  the  Chita  peninsula  to  witness  a  naval 
engagement,  returning  to  Nagoya  the  following  day 
(the  31st).  April  1st  and  2nd  will  be  spent  in  watch- 
ing engagements  on  land.  The  attacking  force  will 
attempt  a  landing  at  Handa,  which  will  be  defended 
by  the  opposite  force.  There  will  be  a  two  days' 
engagement  on  sea  and  also  on  land,  resulting  in 
the  repulse  of  the  defending  army  and  the  landing 
of  the  assailants.  The  1st  Brigade  of  the  Imperial 
Bodyguard  leaves  the  capital  on  the  18th  inst.,  and 
will  travel  by  forced  marches  to  Nagoya,  covering 
about  six  ri  per  day.  The  journey  will  thus  occupy 
about  thirteen  days.  The  two  days'  engagement  on 
land  on  April  1st  and  2nd  is  expected  to  take  place 
about  Goyu  and  Narumi. 

Azabu,  Tokio,  Japan,  March  18. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

MILITANT    JAPAX. 

I  have  just  returned  to  my  Japanese  hotel  from  the 
battlefield  near  Otaka,  where  the  troops  of  all  arms 
of  his  imperjal  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Japan  have 
to-day  fought  a  brilliant  engagement,  happily  as 
bloodless  as  it  was  picturesque,  interesting,  and 
instructive.  I  mentioned  in  a  previous  letter  that 
I  had  received  the  honour  of  an  invitation  to  attend 
these  manoeuvres  of  the  imperial  forces  at  Xagoya. 
The  navy  as  well  as  the  army  was  to  join  in 
them,  and  they  were  to  be  more  complete  and 
important  than  anything  of  the  kind  heretofore 
displayed  in  Japan.  Of  the  naval  portion  of  the 
fighting  I  can  tell  you  nothing  except  from  hearsay, 
for  the  action  by  sea  was  terminated  before  our 
large  party  of  ministers,  diplomatists,  officers  of 
State,  and  two  or  three  specially-invited  foreigners, 
arrived  at  the  scene  of  conflict.  There  were,  how- 
ever, not  less  than  fifteen  men-of-war  of  various 
types  engaged,  besides  numerous  gunboats  and 
torpedo-boats  ;  and  I  was  informed  that  the  opera- 
tion of  covering  the  landing  of  a  large  bodv 
of  troops  was  admirably  managed.  An  excellent 
authority  here,  Captain  Ingles,  R.  X.,  who  is  high 


358  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

in  the  service  of  the  Japanese  Admiralty,  and  an 
officer  of  our  own  navy,  assured  me  on  the  field  of 
battle  to-day  that  he  hardly  knew  how  to  find  any 
fault  at  all  with  the  Japanese  officers  and  crews  of 
His  Majesty's  fleet.  He  described  to  me  an  opera- 
tion effected  by  the  captain  of  the  ironclad  on  board 
of  which  he  sailed,  who,  on  receiving  a  sudden 
signal,  slipped  and  buoyed  his  anchor,  and  got 
under  weigh  within  ten  minutes,  afterwards  bring- 
ing his  ship  back,  and  picking  up  the  buoy  again 
in  the  dark  by  very  dexterous  navigation.  He 
declared  the  thing  could  not  have  been  performed 
more  handsomely  in  a  Queen's  ship.  The  Japanese 
bluejackets  dress  and  look  very  much  like  British 
men-of-warsmen,  tanned  brown  by  the  sun.  They 
have  adopted  our  naval  uniform  and  system  in 
every  point,  and  possessing  great  aptitude  for  the 
sea,  as  is  shown  by  the  skill  of  the  sampanmen,  and 
the  hardihood  of  the  coast  fishermen,  they  make — 
Captain  Ingles  said — really  first-rate  seamen.  With 
the  patience  of  Asiatic  blood,  they  have  none  of 
its  languor.  They  are  alert,  intelligent,  brave,  and 
docile  to  manage  beyond  the  experience  of  perhaps 
any  other  flag  upon  the  ocean.  Punishment  is 
hardly  known  in  the  Emperor's  warships,  being 
so  seldom  necessary ;  and  if  the  Government  of 
Japan  would  do  as  much  for  the  navy  as  for  the 
army,  and  strive  in  every  way  to  develop  its  strength 
and  popularity,  Japan  might  become,  I  believe,  the 
England  of  the  Pacific,  and  make  the  white  flag  with 
the  crimson  sun  upon  it  pre-eminent  in  these  seas. 
But  our  business  was  not  "  on  the  great  waters," 


MILITANT  JAPAN.  359 

and  the  fleet  had  had  its  innings,  and  was  peaceably 
moored  in  the  bay  when  our  long  train  steamed  into 
Xagoya  Station,  after  a  journey  of  200  miles  from 
the  capital.  Xagoya  is  a  large  and  well-looking 
city  of  about  125,000  inhabitants,  planted  in  a  plain 
on  the  south-western  coast ;  at  this  season  coloured 
all  green  with  the  barley,  and  golden  with  the 
blossoms  of  the  rape.  Its  streets  are  wide  and  well 
kept,  and  were  gay  with  triumphal  arches,  made  of 
fir  and  bamboo  and  paper  peony  flowers,  and  also 
with  flags  and  lanterns.  Its  principal  building  is  the 
Shiro,  or  castle,  and  the  Honganji  Temple,  contain- 
ing something  which  is  both  a  temple  and  a  palace, 
where  the  Mikado  was  quartered.  The  castle  is 
fortified  by  ancient  walls  of  massive  masonry,  and 
is  extremely  pictorial  in  general  effect.  The  high 
stone  walls,  built  in  the  style  termed  by  the  Romans 
opus  incertum,  are  topped  with  white  tower  houses 
of  Chinese  fashion,  and  in  the  centre  rises  a  five- 
storeyed  pagoda-like  edifice,  surmounted  by  two 
famous  dolphins  made  of  plates  of  gold,  which 
glitter  bravely  in  the  sunshine.  One  of  these  fish 
has  had  extraordinary  adventures,  having  been  sent 
to  the  Vienna  Exhibition,  and  then  sunk  at  sea  in 
returning  on  board  the  Messageries  steamer  Nil.  It 
was  got  up  again,  however,  and  brought  home  to  its 
proper  place,  to  the  great  delight  of  Xagoya.  That 
city  was  all  ablaze  with  excitement  and  loyalty  when 
I  arrived.  Every  house,  without  exception,  had  dis- 
played the  white  flag  with  the  red  sun,  on  a  golden- 
tipped  bamboo,  and  a  paper  lantern,  of  the  same 
national  colours.     This  unity  of  decoration   painted 


360  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

the  town  all  white  and  red,  and  produced  a  charm- 
ing effect.  Quarters  were  difficult  to  obtain,  but 
by  the  courtesy  of  the  Minister  of  the  Household, 
Mr.  Nagasaki,  and  the  kind  offices  of  my  friend, 
Mr.  Yamada,  I  was  well  lodged,  and,  having  had 
a  coloured  scarf  bound  round  my  right  arm,  I 
wandered  everywhere  at  pleasure,  and  had  ample 
opportunities  of  observing  anything. 

The  first  day  of  the  manoeuvres  passed  near 
Karya,  and  I  will  not  dwell  upon  them,  the  interest 
consisting  chiefly  in  military  technics.  All  trains 
being  full,  we  returned  across  country  in  our  jin- 
rikishas,  passing  through  an  interesting  region  of 
sandhills  and  rice-fields,  and  leaving  the  two  armies 
moving  to  meet  each  other  on  the  next  day  at  a 
point  about  seven  miles  from  Nagoya.  Thither  we 
repaired  early  on  the  following  morning,  along  a 
road  presenting  all  the  appearance  of  active  war. 
Trains  of  Chinese  ponies,  with  ammunition  and 
provisions,  spades  and  pickaxes,  stretchers  and 
medical  stores,  filed  along.  Every  now  and  then 
the  way  was  blocked  by  detachments  of  infantry 
marching  at  quick  step  to  the  battlefield.  Then 
we  would  overtake  batteries  of  light  or  heavy 
artillery  rumbling  along  into  action.  There  was 
very  little  cavalry,  the  country  being  not  adapted 
for  that  arm,  but  the  infantry  and  artillery  engaged 
amounted  altogether  to  nearly  30,000.  Threading 
our  way  through  the  martial  throng,  we  reached  at 
last  a  village,  where  we  dismounted  and  took  a 
wooded  path  leading  into  the  hills.  At  this  moment 
the  roar  of  cannon    and   the   crackle   of  musketry 


MILITANT  JAPAN.  36 1 

announced  the  scene  of  action  to  be  near,  and  we 
came  upon  two  companies  lying  concealed  in  the 
thick  underwood.  A  little  farther  and  we  emerged 
upon  the  brow  of  a  hill,  where  the  picture  of  mimic 
warfare  suddenly  developed  itself.  A  long  sand- 
stone ridge,  some  two  or  three  hundred  feet  above 
the  valleys  and  the  rice-fields  beneath,  was  faced 
by  a  corresponding  and  almost  parallel  ridge,  the 
latter  being  held  by  the  hostile  army.  Ours,  with 
which  was  His  Majesty,  distinguished  by  white 
covers  upon  all  the  soldiers'  caps,  occupied  the  range 
nearest  to  Nagoya,  and  we  had  already  brought  up 
to  the  rim  of  the  hill  three  batteries  of  mountain 
guns,  which  kept  up  a  constant  fire  on  the  enemy's 
pieces,  and  on  such  masses  of  his  infantry  as  could 
be  seen  or  guessed  at  in  the  close  bush  opposite. 
Our  artillerymen  were  serving  their  little  guns  with 
admirable  regularity.  Near  and  far  amid  the  dwarf 
trees  lay  hidden  large  bodies  of  our  men,  and  it  was 
interesting  to  notice  how  very  few  could  be  dis- 
cerned out  of  the  considerable  number  of  troops 
upon  the  field.  Behind  the  shelter  of  the  hill  the 
artillery  horses,  with  the  charges  of  the  staff  and 
the  ponies  of  the  ambulance,  were  picketed,  and 
under  its  brow  the  two  war-horses  of  the  Emperor, 
were  being  walked  about  covered  with  cloths  of 
green  satin,  emblazoned  with  the  gold  chrysan- 
themum. His  Majesty  himself,  the  Mikado,  stood 
amid  the  cannon  smoke,  with  a  brilliant  staff  around 
him,  wearing  a  military  cap  and  coat,  and  buckskin 
breeches,  with  high  boots.  He  was  the  umpire  and 
final  arbiter  of  the  day,  and  as  I  stood  near  him   I 


362  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

was  impressed  by  the  high  intelligence  of  his  counte- 
nance and  the  close  attention  which  he  displayed. 
The  foreign  ministers,  in  full  uniform,  and  wearing 
their  orders,  added  to  the  brilliance  of  the  warlike 
spectacle,  which  could  not  have  had  a  more  pictur- 
esque mise-en-scene.  The  sandhills  on  which  we 
stood,  covered  with  dwarf  fir-trees,  were  coloured 
almost  as  purple  as  the  Scotch  moors  in  autumn  by 
the  purple  blossom  of  the  Tsutsuji,  or  wild  azalea, 
the  green  and  purple  being  further  diversified  by 
the  dark  blue  uniforms  with  red  or  yellow  facings 
of  the  imperial  troops. 

We  have  been  hammering  away  for  two  hours 
with  the  little  seven-pounder  Krupps,  till  they 
are  too  hot  to  touch ;  our  skirmishers  have  pushed 
forward  far  down  the  hill,  almost  to  the  edge  of 
the  rice-fields  and  to  the  road  skirting  them.  A 
mile  away  on  the  right  flank  our  batteries  have 
either  silenced  the  enemy,  or  he  is  preparing  some 
new  and  daring  combination.  This  proves  to  be 
the  case,  for,  on  a  sudden,  the  thickets  opposite 
send  forth  a  large  body  of  infantry,  who  begin  to 
cross  the  rice-fields  at  a  run,  with  a  view  of  driv- 
ing in  our  skirmishers,  and  perhaps  storming  our 
ridge.  The  spectacle  is  curious.  A  rice-field 
region  looks  like  an  interminable  chess-board, 
the  squares  being  the  rice-plots,  full  of  mud  and 
water,  and  the  dividing  lines  the  tiny,  raised  path- 
ways, which  shut  the  water  in  and  give  access 
to  the  crops.  Along  these  countless  lines,  darting 
hither  and  thither  like  knights  on  the  chess-board, 
come  the  enemy's   soldiers.     At   the   first   sight   of 


MILITANT  JAPAN.  363 

them  our  heavy  batteries  of  Krupp  twelve-pounders 
are  brought  up  at  a  gallop  to  silence  the  reopen- 
ing guns  of  the  foe,  while  our  troops  from  the 
rear  hasten  to  line  every  yard  of  the  ridae,  and 
a  lively  fire  from  thousands  of  rifles  is  answered 
by  shots  and  volleys  from  the  hitherto  concealed 
enemy. 

If  it  had  been  real  warfare  I  do  not  think  a 
third  of  this  attacking  force  could  have  crossed 
the  rice-fields  alive.  Bullets  and  grape  had  full 
time,  I  thought,  at  a  range  of  less  than  a  mile, 
to  bag  them  like  so  many  wisps  of  snipe.  But 
as  it  is  they  swarm  across ;  they  line  the  far 
side  of  the  road ;  they  drive  in  our  foremost 
skirmishers;  they  even  begin  to  climb  stealthily 
up  our  hill,  while  the  bronze  Krupp  guns,  now 
almost  red  hot,  are  jumping  with  incessant  rounds, 
and  their  roar,  along  with  the  crackle  of  the 
musketry,  makes  the  stallions  behind  the  brow 
wild  with  excitement.  At  this  juncture,  when 
some  of  the  enemy  have  come  into  our  cannon- 
smoke,  and  the  valley  is  nearly  hidden  in  its 
volumes,  the  Emperor  utters  a  command.  The 
little  pennon  of  scarlet  silk  with  the  gold  sun 
upon  it,  carried  wherever  he  moves,  is  waved  as 
a  signal,  and  the  bugles  all  along  our  line  blow 
the  familiar  notes  of  the  "Cease  firing."  In  an 
instant  war  is  changed  by  magic  into  peace,  the 
thick  smoke  rolls  away  from  the  purple  azaleas, 
the  Krupps  cool  down,  the  dust-covered  artillery- 
men take  breath,  and  return  their  spare  cartridges 
to    the     field     magazine;    and     when    we    see    the 


364  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

Imperial  attendants  spreading  a  blue  satin  eloth, 
with  gold  chrysanthemums  worked  on  it,  over 
some  limber  chests,  and  setting  out  the  Emqeror's 
bento,  or  lunch,  we  all  imitate  the  Royal  example 
and  proceed  to  open  those  neat  little  boxes  in 
which  the  Japanese  pack  up  a  cold  repast,  break- 
ing the  lids  up  into  chopsticks. ' 

We  afterwards  effected  a  masterly  retreat  along 
the  Nagoya  road,  lost  in  a  cavalcade  of  staff,  horse, 
and  artillery,  and  overtaking  many  regiments,  already 
marching  to  Nagoya  for  the  review  of  the  next  day. 
I  do  not  pretend  to  military  knowledge,  but  I  have 
seen  almost  all  existing  armies,  and  am  quite  sure 
that  better  judges  than  myself  would  pronounce  the 
Japanese  soldiers  to  be  excellent  material.  Every- 
thing about  them  looked  business-like,  soldierly,  and 
substantial.  Their  arms  were  in  good  order ;  their 
bearing  alert,  eager,  and  intelligent ;  and,  although 
on  foot  for  two  days  together,  with  much  marching, 
I  noticed  only  two  or  three  fall  out  from  fatigue. 
Their  officers  wisely  allow  them  to  exchange,  when 
they  like,  their  heavy  regimental  boots  for  the  easy 
waraji  or  sandal,  and  in  consequence  there  are  no 
sore  feet.  Their  uniform  is  of  the  German  type, 
chiefly  dark  blue,  with  dust-coloured  gaiters,  and  I 
should  think  that  English  general  fortunate  who,  in 
an  Asiatic  war,  could  have  the  assistance  of  thirty 
thousand  of  such  men  as  I  saw  on  the  hills  of 
Otaka. 

Next  morning  we  repaired,  in  the  frock-coats  and 
tall  hats  which  it  is  Japanese  etiquette  to  wear, 
to  the  parade-ground    of   the    Castle,  and    there — 


MILITANT  JAPAN.  365 

standing  or  mounted  round  the  Emperor — we  saw- 
some  fifteen  or  twenty  regiments  march  past  the 
master  of  these  legions  and  of  the  fair  and  pros- 
perous empire  of  Japan.  As  each  body  of  men 
came  to  the  scarlet  and  gold  pennon  carried  by  a 
mounted  officer  at  His  Majesty's  side,  they  presented 
arms,  and  the  officers  raised  their  sword-hilts  to 
their  foreheads.  Some  regiments  carried  colours 
torn  to  tatters  by  hostile  bullets  in  the  war  of  the 
Rebellion,  and  these  the  Emperor  always  specially 
saluted.  The  marching  was  very  good,  the  lines 
well  dressed.  You  could,  indeed,  have  rolled  a 
cricket-ball  between  the  files  of  almost  every  com- 
pany. Then  the  troops  drew  up  in  a  long  front, 
along  which  the  Mikado  rode,  with  his  staff,  and 
we  all  raced  home  to  our  hotels — troops,  sightseers, 
diplomatists,  and  guns,  mingled  in  a  dusty,  good- 
tempered  column — through  dense  crowds  of  loyal, 
sweet-mannered,  and  orderly  Japanese  people,  and 
under  the  bright  sunlight  of  a  perfect  Japanese 
spring  day. 

In  the  evening  there  was  a  grand  reception  at  the 
Hangonji  Temple,  inside  the  castle  to  which  I  had 
the  honour  of  being  invited.  Everybody  wore  full 
uniform  or  Court  dress,  and  the  concourse  in  the 
vast  hall,  with  its  plain  wooden  pillars,  each  of  them 
as  big  as  the  main-mast  of  an  old  three-decker,  was 
very  splendid.  No  ladies  were  present,  and  the 
Empress  herself  had  stayed  behind  in  Tokio.  The 
Japanese  orders  of  the  Rising  Sun,  the  Chrysanthe- 
mum and  the  Sacred  Treasure,  glittered  upon  many 
breasts   well    known    in    modern    Japanese   history. 


366 


SEAS  AND   LANDS. 


The  Mikado  himself  presently  came  among  us, 
wearing  the  great  gold  star  of  the  Rising  Sun 
upon  a  general's  uniform,  but  soon,  led  the  way  to 
another  hall,  where  supper,  in  the  Japanese  fashion, 
had  been  prepared  for  three  thousand.     His  Majesty 


IN    WINTER    DRESS. 


himself  supped  on  a  raised  platform  with  a  special 
party,  and  with  this  brilliant  entertainment  the 
great  military  pageant  of  Nagoya  may  be  said  to 
have  closed. 

Returning   by  the  long  train  journey,  I  enjoyed 


MILITANT  JAPAN.  367 

at  the  station  of  Suzukawa  a  sublime  spectacle. 
The  little  town  stands  at  the  very  point  where  the 
long  foot  of  Fuji-San  slopes  into  the  sea,  and  I 
saw  that  divinely  perfect  mountain,  from  base  to 
glorious  summit,  bathed  in  burning  sunshine,  and 
clearly  defined  in  every  inch  of  her  14,000  feet  of 
elevation.  Snow  lay  thick  and  dazzling  more  than 
half-way  down  the  majestic  cone,  and  at  about  the 
snow-line  a  girdle  of  golden  and  rosy  clouds  belted 
the  Queen  of  Mountains  on  her  seaward  side.  Below 
the  cloudy  zone  were  vast  sloping  grey  moors,  and 
lower  still  a  region  of  green  forest,  bringing  the 
eye  beneath  to  where,  upon  her  gigantic  Hanks,  an 
indefatigable  agriculture  covered  her  knees  and  feet 
with  fertility.  For  a  whole  hour,  as  we  skirted 
the  splendid  eminence  and  caught  new  views  of 
her  beauty,  new  colours  and  shadows  on  her  snows, 
her  clouds,  her  crags,  and  her  forests,  I  could  not 
take  my  eyes  from  the  peerless  mountain,  by  which 
we  had  passed  without  so  much  as  a  glimpse  of  her 
majesty  in  the  rain  and  mist  of  the  journey  down 
to  Nagoya. 

Their  Royal  Highnesses  the  Duke  and  Duchess 
of  Connaught  will  arrive  in  Yokohama  on  Tuesday 
next.  The  British  Legation  here  has  been  prepared 
for  their  temporary  abode  in  Tokio.  They  will  visit 
Nikko  and  Kioto,  and  see  Fuji-San. 

Nagoya,  April  2. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

JAPAN    AND    FOREIGN    POWERS. 

I  ask  permission  to  be  serious,  and  even  dull, 
in  both  this  and  the  next  communication,  in  order 
to  speak  about  a  subject  of  vital  import  to  Japan, 
and,  indeed,  of  international  interest —  that  of  Treaty 
Revision.  But  let  me  first  mention  that  their  Royal 
Highnesses  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Connaught 
have  left  us  to-day,  after  a  stay  in  Japan,  which  I 
have  the  best  warrant  for  saying  has  been  full  of 
very  pleasant  experiences.  The  weather,  unhappily, 
has  shown  itself  singularly  disloyal  and  inhospitable. 
Only  two  fine  days  of  the  real  Japanese  pattern  have 
smiled  upon  the  Royal  visitors ;  but  they  were  not 
to  be  daunted  by  this,  and  have  managed  to  see  a 
great  deal  of  the  capital  and  its  neighbourhood,  as 
well  as  of  the  people  and  their  customs.  They  have 
sailed  up  the  Inland  Sea,  viewing  its  unparalleled 
combinations  of  islands  and  waters ;  they  have  stayed 
at  Kobe,  Kyoto,  and  Kamakura ;  they  have  inspected 
the  colossal  Buddha  at  Daibutsu,  and  dined  a  la 
Japonaise,  on  the  mats ;  wandered  through  the  Great 
National  Exhibition  at  Uyeno;  studied  the  splendid 
temples  at  Nikko  and  Shiba ;  and,  of  course,  made 

innumerable  purchases  in  the  ever-fascinating  silk 

368 


JAPAN  AND  FOREIGN  POWERS.  369 

and  curio  shops.  Yesterday  the  Emperor  returned 
from  Kobe  in  good  time  to  receive  the  illustrious 
guests  of  his  country,  first  in  audience  at  the  Palace, 
and  next  at  dinner ;  and  this  morning  his  Imperial 
Majesty  returned,  in  state,  the  visit  of  their  Royal 
Highnesses  ;  who  are  at  present  embarking  upon  the 
Abyssinia,  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Line,  for  Van- 
couver and  the  journey,  through  the  Dominion, 
homewards.  I  have  not  mentioned,  of  course,  half 
the  functions  and  ceremonies  which  have  attended 
the  sojourn  of  their  Royal  Highnesses  in  Japan,  all 
of  which  their  inexhaustible  geniality  and  grace  have 
made  so  successful ;  but  it  is  worth  while  to  remark 
that,  in  spite  of  the  sadly  cloudy  and  unpropitious 
weather,  the  Duchess  of  Connaught  obtained  one 
perfect  view  of  Fuji-San.  Her  Royal  Highness  told 
me  that,  at  the  station  of  Gotemba,  which  is  upon 
the  very  base  of  the  matchless  mountain,  the  clouds 
lifted  for  a  little  while  and  revealed  the  vision  which 
I  lately  had  the  honour  of  describing  to  you  of  this 
glorious  eminence — once  a  terrible  volcano,  and  now 
the  loveliest  and  most  verdant  as  well  as  the  shape- 
liest of  all  the  hills  of  earth — bathed  in  sunlight  and 
radiant  with  beauty,  from  her  feet,  slippered  in  the 
gold  and  green  of  the  spring  crops,  to  her  waist  girt 
with  the  gold  and  rosy  clouds,  and  head  crowned  with 
shining  snows. 

And  now  for  this  great  and  serious  matter  of 
Treaty  Revision  !  No  Oriental  country  ever  suddenly 
attracted  so  much  atttention  in  the  West  as  Japan. 
Her  fine  arts  first  brought  her  into  special  notice. 
The  rich  field  she  offered  at  a  moment  when  Europe 


37o  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

stood  in  urgent  need  of  new  inspiration,  is  still  only 
partially  explored,  yet  the  Occident  has  already 
derived  from  it  a  wealth  of  fresh  motives  and 
invigorating  suggestions.  Folks  in  the  West,  how- 
ever, have  not  yet  drawn  from  Japanese  art  the  in- 
ferences it  properly  suggests.  They  cannot  choose 
but  be  charmed  by  it ;  they  accept  its  lessons  with 
gratitude,  and  frankly  acknowledge  the  debt  they 
owe  it ;  but  of  the  nation  that  gave  it  to  them 
they  think  little.  Politically  speaking,  Japan  is 
just  as  far  from  Europe  as 'she  was  twenty-five 
years  ago.  The  impression  created  by  her  two 
centuries  of  seclusion  has  not  been  effaced,  and 
very  few  people  recognise  that  no  longer  of  her 
own  choice,  but  on  account  of  Western  prejudice 
and  indifference,  she  is  forbidden  to  emerge  com- 
pletely from  the  state  of  isolation  which  the  West 
itself  forced  her  to  abandon  in  1858.  It  is  a  curious 
chapter  of  history,  this  signal  reversal  of  the  posi- 
tions occupied  by  Japan  and  her  mentors.  The 
inherent  right  of  every  nation  to  regulate  for  itself 
the  nature  and  extent  of  its  intercourse  with  other 
states  was  denied  to  Japan  thirty-three  years  ago. 
She  was  told  that  the  first  principles  of  civilisation 
and  of  the  federation  of  humanity  were  outraged  by 
the  selfish  assertion  of  any  such  right.  She  was 
taught  that  material  prosperity  is  the  only  genuine 
basis  of  international  consideration;  that  commerce 
is  the  parent  of  prosperity,  and  that  to  be  successful 
commerce  must  be  unrestricted.  In  obedience  to 
these  doctrines,  supported,  as  they  were,  by  a 
menace  of  force  majeure,  she  unhesitatingly  opened 


JAPAN  AND  FOREIGN  POWERS.  371 

a  few  of  her  ports,  and  suffered  her  subjects  to 
commence  a  partial  trade  with  the  outer  world. 
But  when,  by  and  by,  she  would  fain  have  com- 
pleted the  work — would  fain  have  thrown  open 
every  part  of  her  empire,  and  removed  all  obstacles 
from  the  path  of  commerce — Western  Governments 
told  her  that  they  did  not  consider  her  qualified  for 
equal  intercourse,  and  that  the  moral  and  liberal 
principles  which  they  had  preached  for  the  purpose 
of  breaking  down  her  seclusion  could  not  possibly 
be  suffered  to  have  any  inconvenient  application 
to  their  own  conduct.  It  was  a  surprise  to  Japan. 
She  did  not  immediately  realise  what  it  signified, 
but  when  she  came  to  understand  the  inequality 
of  Western  justice  in  international  matters,  and  to 
perceive  that  there  was  to  be  one  law  for  her,  and 
another  and  an  entirely  different  one  for  her  treaty 
friends,  she  began  to  lose  something  of  her  con- 
fidence in  Occidental  morality,  and  to  look  with 
doubting  eyes  on  its  representatives. 

It  may  seem  strange  to  speak  of  Japan's  confi- 
dence in  Western  nations,  but  history  shows  that  her 
original  instincts  were  all  in  favour  of  foreign  inter- 
course. When  the  Portuguese  first  came  to  her 
shores  in  1545  they  received  kindly  welcome,  and 
no  obstacles  were  placed  in  the  way  of  their  com- 
merce. The  Dutch  had  a  similar  experience  in 
1G00,  and  thirteen  years  later,  the  first  English  ships 
arriving,  Japan  readily  signed  a  treaty  granting  to 
the  subjects  of  Great  Britain  perpetual  licence  to 
trade  and  reside  in  every  part  of  the  empire.  The 
causes  that  converted  this  amicable  mood   into  one 


372  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

of  distrust  and  dislike  were  chiefly  religious.  The 
Portuguese  Jesuits,  who  pioneered  Christianity,  and 
who  carried  its  precepts  of  peace  and  benevolence 
into  their  practice,  might  have  happily  continued 
their  successful  labours  had  they  not  been  followed 
by  Dominicans  and  Franciscans,  who  quarrelled  with 
each  other  and  with  the  Jesuits,  making  Japan  for 
the  first  time  acquainted  with  the  bitterness  of  sec- 
tarian strife.  Winning  converts  and  wealth,  the 
foreign  priests  began  to  exercise  the  cruel  intoler- 
ance of  mediaeval  Europe.  Japanese  dignitaries 
were  insulted,  Buddhist  temples  burned,  and  pro- 
])agandism  by  persecution  became  the  order  of  the 
hour.  Meanwhile,  the  avarice  and  extortion  of  the 
Portuguese  traders  disgusted  Japanese  officials,  and 
prepared  them  to  believe  the  false  representations 
of  the  Dutch,  who  declared  that  territorial  aggran- 
disement was  the  real  aim  of  the  Portuguese,  and 
that  their  religious  propagandism  was  in  truth  a 
political  campaign.  Never  before  harassed  by  the 
clash  of  militant  creeds,  the  Japanese  were  pre- 
pared to  extend  to  foreign  faiths  the  tolerance  that 
marked  their  attitude  towards  Buddhism,  and  the 
attitude  of  the  numerous  sects  of  Buddhism  towards 
each  other.  Nobunaga,  the  secular  ruler  of  Japan, 
replying  to  remonstrances  prompted  by  the  first 
symptoms  of  Christian  egotism,  said  that  if  Japan 
could  tolerate  thirty-five  sects  of  Buddhism  she 
might  easily  bear  with  a  thirty-sixth  in  the  shaj)e  of 
Christianity.  When,  however,  torture,  ruin,  blood- 
si  led,  and  rebellion  began  to  dog  the  footsteps  of 
the  Christian  propagandists,  and  when  the  political 


JAPAN  AND  FOREIGN  POWERS.  373 

designs  attributed  to  them  by  the  Dutch  received 
confirmation  in  their  conduct  and  demeanour,  the 
Japanese  resolved  to  expel  them  from  the  land.  It 
was  then  that  a  patriotic  aversion  to  all  foreigners 
grew  up,  and,  being  transmitted  from  father  to  son 
as  a  sacred  precept,  found  expression  in  the  fierce 
outbursts  of  murderous  opposition  which  disfigured 
the  early  days  of  renewed  foreign  intercourse  thirty 
years  ago.  In  the  eyes  of  the  Japanese  Samurai 
every  Occidental  was  a  Bateren  (Padre),  an  in- 
triguer against  the  independence  of  the  "  country  of 
the  gods." 

From  the  moment,  however,  that  this  error  came 
to  be  recognised — as  it  was  fully  recognised  by  the 
remarkable  men  who  planned  the  overthrow  of 
feudalism,  and  have  since  directed  Japan's  destinies 
— from  that  moment  Japan,  laying  aside  her  tem- 
porary dislike,  reverted  to  the  trustful  and  hospitable 
mood  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Welcoming  foreign 
intercourse,  she  welcomed  also  foreign  civilisation. 
A  period  of  wonderful  progress  ensued.  In  the  short 
space  of  twenty  years  new  and  enlightened  criminal 
codes  were  enacted;  the  methods  of  judicial  pro- 
cedure were  entirely  changed  ;  thoroughly  efficient 
systems  of  police,  of  posts,  of  telegraphs,  and  of 
national  education  were  organised  ;  an  army  and  a 
navy  modelled  after  Western  patterns  were  formed  ; 
the  finances  of  the  Empire  were  placed  on  a  sound 
basis;  railways,  roads,  and  harbours  were  con- 
structed; an  efficient  mercantile  marine  sprang  into 
existence;  the  jail  system  was  radically  improved; 
an  extensive   scheme  of  local  government  was   put 


374  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

into  ojieration ;  a  competitive  civil  service  was 
organised ;  the  whole  fiscal  system  was  revised ;  an 
influential  and  widely  read  newspaper  press  grew 
up  with  extraordinary  rapidity ;  the  people  were  en- 
franchised, and  government  by  parliament  was  sub- 
stituted for  monarchical  absolutism.  So  swift  were 
the  phases  of  this  kaleidoscopic  scene  that  foreign 
observers  sometimes  doubted  its  sincerity.  Japan, 
they  said,  was  hiding  her  old  self  under  a  veneer 
which  would  certainly  be  torn  off  by-and-by.  They 
forgot  that  the  genius  of  the  Japanese  people  is 
essentially  eclectic ;  that  in  former  ages  they  had  not 
hesitated  to  borrow,  even  from  the  comparatively 
puny  kingdom  of  Korea,  whatever  elements  of  a 
better  civilisation  that  country  had  to  offer ;  that 
they  had  laid  Chinese  civilisation  under  contribu- 
tions almost  as  great  as  those  they  were  now  levying 
on  the  civilisation  of  the  West ;  that  in  every  case 
they  had  shown  themselves  free  from  fickleness  or 
lightness  of  purpose,  and  that  whenever  a  good  system 
was  imported  it  had  taken  strong  root  in  Japanese 
soil,  its  growth  improving  largely  under  Japanese 
culture,  and  changing  only  so  far  as  was  necessary 
to  adapt  it  to  a  Japanese  invironment.  There  was 
nothing  in  the  nation's  ancient  history  to  suggest  a 
danger  of  superficiality  in  such  matters,  and  there 
has  been  nothing  in  the  story  of  the  past  twenty 
years  to  cast  doubt  on  the  stability  of  the  wonderful 
progress  they  have  witnessed.  By  the  many  writers 
who  have  spoken  in  admiring  terms  of  that  progress, 
the  title  to  international  consideration  which  it  gives 
Japan  has  been  unanimously  admitted.     Yet  neither 


JAPAN  AND  FOREIGN  POWERS.  375 

for  the  sake  of  her  frank  adoption  of  Western 
civilisation,  nor  yet  in  consistent  deference  to  the 
principle  which  they  formerly  compelled  her  to 
obey,  will  Western  Powers  consent  to  admit  her  to 
equal  intercourse  with  themselves.  Neither  because 
she  has  proved  herself  worthy  of  trust  by  twenty 
years  of  persistent  effort,  nor  yet  because  they 
have  no  more  right  to  condemn  her  to  a  state  of 
semi-isolation  than  they  had  to  drag  her  out  of 
complete  isolation  in  1858,  will  the  Governments 
of  Europe  agree  to  her  proposals  for  unrestricted 
intercourse.  An  impediment,  which,  though  once 
considerable,  has  now  been  reduced  to  utterly  in- 
significant dimensions,  blocks  the  way.  When  a 
covenant  was  made  opening  a  few  ports  to  foreign 
vessels,  and  sanctioning  foreign  trade  within  the 
narrow  limits  of  a  few  settlements,  it  was  agreed, 
as  became  such  a  system  of  partial  intercourse, 
that  the  persons  of  foreigners  should  be  entirely 
withdrawn  from  the  processes  of  Japanese  courts, 
and  that  in  their  civil  dealings  with  Japanese  they 
should  have  equal  recourse  to  their  own  and  to 
Japanese  tribunals.  This  is  the  so-called  "  extra- 
territorial system."  It  substitutes  consular  juris- 
diction for  Japanese  in  respect  of  criminal  law, 
and  to  that  extent  deprives  Japan  of  one  of  the 
most  important  sovereign  rights  of  an  independent 
state,  judicial  autonomy.  Under  no  circumstances 
a  sound  system,  it  has  led  in  Japan's  case  to  many 
flagrant  anomalies  and  abuses,  which  have  been 
too  often  exposed  and  discussed  to  need  detailed 
reference  here.     No  one  has  ever  thought  of  deny- 


376  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

ing,  however,  that  before  Japan's  laws  were  revised 
and  her  system  of  police  and  prisons  reformed, 
she  could  not  reasonably  ask  to  be  entrusted 
with  criminal  jurisdiction  over  foreigners.  On  the 
other  hand,  no  one  pretends  that  until  she  is 
entrusted  with  such  jurisdiction  she  can  possibly 
allow  foreigners  to  trade,  travel,  and  reside  where- 
ever  they  please  in  her  territories.  Even  though 
Western  States  were  willing  to  establish  a  com- 
plete network  of  Consular  Courts  at  all  the  prin- 
cipal towns  throughout  the  empire,  the  problem 
would  be  as  far  as  ever  from  solution ;  for  it  is 
obvious  that  no  self-respecting  nation  could  brook 
the  idea  of  sixteen  foreign  Powers  setting  up 
tribunals  for  themselves,  and  independently  adminis- 
tering their  own  laws  everywhere  within  its  borders. 
Foreign  Powers,  however,  have  not  the  smallest 
intention  .of  incurring  any  such  expense  for  the 
sake  of  the  handful  of  their  countrymen  residing 
in  Japan.  Indeed,  not  many  of  them  have  prac- 
tically acknowledged  that  in  exempting  their  sub- 
jects or  citizens  from  Japanese  jurisdiction,  they 
were,  morally  bound  to  provide  an  efficient  substi- 
tute for  that  jurisdiction.  The  fingers  of  one  hand 
suffice  to  count  the  States  which  have  established 
in  the  settlements  properly  equipped  courts  presided 
over  by  duly  qualified  law  officers.  To  open  the 
country,  then,  under  existing  judicial  conditions, 
would  be  to  admit  into  the  interior  a  number 
of  strangers  acknowledging  no  obligation  towards 
Japanese  laws,  and  released  from  the  effective  con- 
trol  of  their    own ;    while,    in    the   event  of  civil 


JAPAN  AND  FOREIGN  POWERS.  377 

disputes,  a  Japanese  suitor  might  have  to  carry 
his  case  and  his  witnesses  several  hundred  miles 
in  order  to  reach  a  foreign  consular  court  in  the 
nearest  settlement.  Thus  the  complete  opening 
of  the  country,  the  removal  of  all  restrictions  upon 
foreign  trade,  travel,  and  residence,  depends  entirely 
upon  the  willingness  of  Western  Powers  to  entrust 
the  persons  and  properties  of  their  suDjects  to 
Japanese  jurisdiction. 

Yokohama,  Japan,  May  10,  1890. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

japan  and  foreign  powers — continued. 

For  nineteen  years  this  question  of  Japan's  relations 
with  foreign  nations  has  agitated  the  minds  of  the 
people :  for  ten  it  has  been  the  theme  of  direct 
negotiation  between  the  Governments  of  Japan  and 
the  Treaty  Powers.  The  treaties  concluded  in  1858 
became  subject  to  revision  in  1872  ;  but  Japan  was 
not  then  prepared  to  propose  a  practical  scheme  of 
revision.  She  was  just  in  the  throes  of  abolishing 
feudalism,  and  had  not  yet  found  leisure  to  re- 
organize her  courts  or  recast  her  laws.  The  recovery 
of  her  tariff  autonomy,  however,  she  had  an  indis- 
putable title  to  demand.  Fixed  on  a  nominal  basis 
of  5  per  cent,  ad  valorem,  the  rates  really  levied  on 
her  foreign  trade  did  not  amount  to  more  than  an 
average  of  3i  per  cent.,  and  the  country  was  sadly  in 
need  of  funds  to  carry  out  the  numerous  reforms  it 
had  undertaken.  But  proposals  for  tariff  revision 
were  invariably  met  with  a  demand  for  the  opening 
of  new  ports  or  some  other  extension  of  commercial 
privileges,  whereas  Japan  was  resolutely  determined 
not  to  suffer  the  system  of  consular  jurisdiction 
to   be   pushed  beyond  the  limits  of  the  settlements 

already  fixed  by  treaty.     She  was,  therefore,  cut  off 

378 


JAPAN  AND  FOREIGN  POWERS.  379 

from    a   source  of  revenue   upon    which    every    in- 
dependent State  lias    an    inalienable  right  to  draw. 
Nay,  more;  though  she  spent  millions  of  dollars  on 
the  lighting  and  1  moving  of  her  coasts,  she  was   not 
permitted    to  levy  a  cent  of  tonnage    dues  on   the 
ships  profiting  by  these  improvements,  for  in  every- 
thing affecting  foreigners  the  unanimous  consent  of 
the   sixteen    Treaty  Powers    was    an    essential    pre- 
liminary,   and    to    obtain     that    consent    proved    a 
hopeless  task.     Perhaps  this  tariff  question,  reacting 
as   it    did   upon   the    problem   of  internal   taxation, 
helped  as  much  as  anything  else  to  concentrate  the 
nation's  attention  on    its    humiliating  plight.     The 
vernacular  press,  a  rapidly  developing  power,  dwelt 
strongly  on  the  country's   deprivation   of  its   sove- 
reign rights,  and  criticised  the  Government's  incompe- 
tence to  recover  them  ;  while  the  local  foreign  press 
retorted  in  terms  of  contemptuous  intolerance,  em- 
bittering  the  situation   and    deepening   the   nation's 
sense   of    injustice    by   intemperate   and    scurrilous 
utterances.     Little   by  little   there  grew    up  in  the 
Japanese   mind   a  conviction  that   the  international 
dealings  of   Western   Powers  were  governed  chiefly 
by  the   dictates  of  Might,  and  that    Right   might  go 
a-begging    unless    it    had    strength    to    assert    itself. 
Yet  the  people  preserved  their  temper  wonderfully. 
Many    a    time  was    it    remarked    that  a   European 
nation    subjected    to   similar   treatment    would    have 
lost  patience  in  a  few  months,  whereas  the  Japanese 
maintained,  year  after  year,  an   invariably  friendly 
and  considerate  mien.     Their  confidence  in  foreigners 
did,    indeed,  gradually    evaporate;    and    this,    sup- 


380  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

plemented  by  a  morbidly  excited  anxiety  to  assert 
the    independence    so    persistently   withheld    from 
them,   affected    their    treatment    of    their    foreign 
eu^loyes,  and  sometimes   betrayed   them  into   pre- 
mature essays  that  did  not  always  end  happily.     Yet 
on  the  whole  they  showed  singularly  few  symptoms 
of  the  umbrage   steadily  growing  in   their  breasts. 
Things   stood    thus   when,  in    1882,  Count   Inouye, 
Minister  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs  and  Japanese  Re- 
presentative at  the  Treaty  Revision  Conference,  then 
sitting  in  Tokio,  laid   before  the  Foreign  Delegates 
a  scheme  pointing   to  the  complete  opening  of  the 
Empire,  provided  that  foreigners  residing  or  trading 
within  its  territories  should  be  bound  by  Japanese 
laws  and    subject    to  Japanese   tribunals.     Already 
criminal  laws  of  undoubted  excellence  were  in  force, 
and  with  respect  to  civil  laws,  Japan  was  ready  to 
promise  that  the  codes  then  in  course  of  compilation 
should  be  completed  and  translated  into  at  least  one 
foreign  language  before   the  date  fixed   for  the  re- 
vised  treaties   to   go   into  operation.     Further,  she 
would    undertake    to   employ   in    the    capacity   of 
judges  such  a  number  of  competent   foreign    legal 
experts    that    in   every  case  where  a  foreigner  was 
concerned   these  judges   should  be   in    a   majority. 
British    influence    was    then    paramount    in  Japan, 
and    Sir    Harry    Parkes    represented    it.      A    man 
universally  beloved    and    respected,  Sir  Harry  had 
done    much   to    enhance   his    country's   prestige    in 
the  Orient ;  but  having  been  an  eyewitness  of  all 
the  changes  undergone  by  Japan  during  and  since 
the  fall  of  feudalism,  familiarity  had  rendered  him 


JAP  AX  AND  FOREIGN  POWERS.  381 

unconscious  of  their  magnitude.  Just  as  persons 
of  mature  years  often  remain  children  in  the  estima- 
tion of  those  who  have  watched  their  daily  growth, 
so  the  new  Japan  remained  always  a  child  in  the 
view  of  Sir  Harry  Parkes,  who  had  assisted  at  its 
birth  and  helped  to  nurse  it.  No  scheme  of  treaty 
revision  recognising  Japan's  competence  to  resume 
her  judicial  and  tariff  autonomy  could  seem  any- 
thing hut  premature  to  him.  He  might  have 
strengthened  and  confirmed  Great  Britain's  leader- 
ship in  Japan  by  taking  a  sympathetic  course ;  but 
his  conservatism  was  unbending,  and  Japan,  hope- 
less of  obtaining  the  assistance  which  she  would 
have  valued  most,  threw  herself  into  the  arms  of 
<  H-rmany.  In  1884,  Sir  Francis  Plunkett  replaced 
Sir  Harry  Parkes  at  the  Court  of  Japan,  and  the 
negotiations  were  continued,  Germany  and  England 
acting  in  apparent  concert,  but  always  to  the 
former's  advantage.  Volumes  might  be  written 
describing  the  wonderful  labyrinth  of  proposals 
and  counter  proposals  advanced  by  the  sixteen 
delegates  ;  the  perpetual  struggles  of  certain  repre- 
sentatives to  assert  their  influence,  of  others  to  save 
themselves  from  effacement ;  the  hopeless  entangle- 
ment of  impracticable  conditions*  that  grew  out  of 
the  foreign  negotiators'  timidity  and  distrust,  and 
the  petty  difficulties  that  blocked  the  path  to  any- 
thing like  a  broad,  statesmanlike  solution.  Finally 
in  1887,  Japan  discovered  that  she  should  be 
obliged  to  pledge  herself  not  only  to  frame  codes 
of  a  certain  character,  but  also  to  submit  them,  as 
well    as    every    subsequent    amendment    of    them. 


382  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

virtually  for  the  approval  of  foreign  Powers;  that 
for  the  sake  of  a  few  hundred  possible  foreign 
suitors,  she  should  have  to  appoint  a  greater 
number  of  foreign  judges  than  those  constituting 
the  whole  English  bench  ;  that  these  judges  would 
be  removable  by  the  decision  of  their  own  col- 
leagues alone  ;  that  each  nationality  looked  forward 
to  a  voice  in  their  appointment ;  and  that  the  whole 
scheme  had  been  contorted  into  something  which 
would  substitute  political  bias  for  the  administration 
of  justice,  and  expose  Japan  to  humiliation  less 
bearable  because  more  deliberate  than  that  she 
already  suffered.  Amid  a  storm  of  popular  excite- 
ment, she  drew  back  from  such  a  ruinous  bargain, 
and  the  negotiations  were  suspended,  not  to  be  re- 
opened until  1889,  when  a  greatly  modified  scheme, 
proposed  by  Count  Okuma,  was  accepted  promptly 
by  the  United  States  of  America,  by  Germany,  and 
by  Russia. 

The  long-deferred  end  seemed  now  in  sight.  The 
guarantees  required  of  Japan  had  been  reduced  to 
comparatively  insignificant  dimensions.  They  were 
represented  by  an  engagement,  first,  that  her  revised 
codes  should  be  promulgated,  and  translated  into 
English  two  years  before  the  abolition  of  consular 
jurisdiction ;  secondly,  that  in  the  Supreme  Court 
judges  of  foreign  origin  should  sit  in  a  majority 
whenever  a  case  affecting  foreigners  came  up  for 
hearing.  Acceptance  of  these  terms  meant  the 
opening  of  the  whole  country  to  foreign  trade, 
travel,  and  residence.  Hitherto  Japan  had  nego- 
tiated with    the   sixteen  Treaty  States   en   masse,  a 


JAPAN  AND  FOREIGN  POWERS.  3S3 

proceeding  which,  after  fifteen  years  of  essay,  had 
amply  proved  its  own  hopelessness.  She  now- 
approached  the  Great  Powers  separately  but  simul- 
taneously, and,  as  we  have  said,  the  United  States, 
Germany,  and  Russia  quickly  concluded  treaties 
with  her.  But  England  hesitated.  Partly  because 
international  courtesy  forbade  her  to  hastily  desert 
a  combination  of  which  she  had  been  the  original 
promoter  as  well  as  the  head ;  partly  because  she 
valued  the  union  for  the  sake  of  the  bloodless  results 
formerly  achieved  by  its  display  of  irresistible  force, 
her  first  impulse  was  to  endeavour  to  re-cement  it. 
In  this  she  failed.  Failure,  ought,  indeed,  to  have 
been  anticipated,  for  careful  observers  had  discovered, 
years  before,  that  Great  Britain's  treaty  colleagues, 
while  willing  enough  to  profit  by  the  convenience 
of  association  with  her,  had  not  hesitated,  as  was 
natural,  to  place  upon  her  the  odium  of  responsi- 
bility, and  to  claim  for  themselves  the  credit  of  more 
liberal  sentiments.  It  was  only  necessary  that  one 
should  break  away  from  the  union,  the  rest  were  sure 
to  follow.  America  took  the  first  step,  Germany 
the  second,  Russia  the  third,  and  France  would  even 
have  preceded  Germany  had  her  official  routine 
permitted  equal  speed.  Thus  the  solidarity  of  great 
Powers  was  reduced  to  England,  Austria,  and  Italy, 
Yet  even  if  England  had  stood  alone  she  could  have 
effectually  blocked  the  way,  not  simply  because  the 
magnitude  of  her  interests  gave  weight  to  her  opposi- 
tion, but  also  because  every  month  passing  without 
a  settlement  brought  new  complications  for  the 
Japanese  Government.     This  latter  fact  depends  011 


384  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

two  reasons,  which  it  is  essential  to  understand  fully. 
The  first  is  that,  comparatively  easy  as  were  the 
guarantees  offered  by  Japan,  one  of  them  had 
excited  public  discontent,  and  was  day  by  day  evok- 
ing bitterer  denunciation.  The  Constitution  promul- 
gated in  the  spring  of  1889  contained  a  clause  which 
the  people  interpreted  as  conferring  on  Japanese 
subjects  an  exclusive  right  of  property  in  Japanese 
civil  and  military  offices.  Therefore  to  appoint 
aliens  to  Japanese  judgeships  would,  it  was  claimed, 
violate  the  letter  of  the  Constitution,  and  to  make 
alienage  a  condition  essential  to  eligibility  would 
unquestionably  violate  its  spirit.  So  vehement  did 
the  opposition  ultimately  become  that  the  Govern- 
ment could  not  have  adhered  to  this  part  of  the 
programme.  To  do  so  would  have  been  not  merely 
to  defy  public  opinion,  but  also  to  take  the  un- 
statesmanlike  course  of  opening  the  country  to 
foreign  intercourse  under  a  system  unpopular  from 
the  outset.  The  second  reason  which  rendered  the 
delay  fatal  to  success  on  the  proposed  lines,  was  the 
imminence  of  parliamentary  institutions.  The  Con- 
stitution, while  reserving  the  treaty-making  power 
to  the  Emperor,  made  the  Diet's  consent  essential 
to  every  exercise  of  legislative  authority.  The  date 
fixed  for  the  meeting  of  the  first  Diet  was  November, 
1890.  Unless,  therefore,  all  the  treaties  could  be 
concluded,  ratified,  and  put  into  operation  before 
that  date,  the  Government  would  be  obliged  to  have 
recourse  to  the  Diet  for  assistance  in  carrying  out 
their  judicial  provisions,  and  it  was  quite  plain  from 
the  temper  of  the  people  that  the  Diet  could  never 


JAPAN  AND  FOREIGN  POWERS.  385 

be  induced  to  assist  in  setting  up  special  courts  of 
the  kind  contemplated.  In  short,  the  Bureaucratic 
Administration  of  1889  dared  not  pledge  itself  to 
anything  conditional  on  the  consent  and  co-operation 
of  the  Constitutional  Administration  of  1890.  Tt 
was  thus  that  England's  delay  interposed  an  effectual 
barrier  by,  on  the  one  hand,  allowing  time  for  the  sen- 
timental opposition  of  the  Japanese  nation  to  mature, 
and,  on  the  other,  fatally  shortening  the  period 
available  to  the  Government  for  independent  action. 

Once  more,  then,  in  the  fall  of  last  year,  the 
negotiations  had  to  be  suspended.  The  Japanese 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  resigned.  Crippled  for 
life  by  the  attack  of  one  of  those  fanatics  incidental 
to  seasons  of  keen  popular  excitement,  he  carried 
into  his  retirement  the  credit  of  having,  by  a  dis- 
play of  consummate  ability  and  courage,  brought  his 
country  within  sight  of  her  much-desired  goal.  Thus 
two  of  Japan's  greatest  statesmen,  Count  Inouye  and 
Count  Okuma,  had  been  sacrificed  at  the  shrine  of 
this  apparently  easy  problem — how  to  remove  from 
Japan  the  stigma  of  semi-isolation  ;  how  to  complete 
the  freedom  of  her  foreign  intercourse.  Who  could 
be  induced  to  step  into  the  breach  where  two  such 
experts  had  fallen  ? 

A   short  interval  of  rest   ensued.      During   four 

years  Japanese  legislators   had   been  elaborating   a 

scheme  for  reorganising  the  law  courts ;  during  four 

times  that  period  they  had    been  engaged  drafting 

civil  and  commercial   codes,  based  on  the  principles 

of  Western  jurisprudence.     Both  of  these  measures 

were  now  consummated.     The  scheme  of  reorganised 

28 


386  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

courts  was  promulgated  in  February  ;  the  new  codes 
were  issued  in  March.  Thus,  of  the  two  guarantees 
forming  the  basis  of  the  suspended  negotiations  one, 
and  that  by  far  the  more  important,  was  effectually 
satisfied  ;  Japan  possessed  a  good  system  of  civil 
and  commercial  law,  an  English  version  of  which 
might  be  procured  by  any  one.  But  the  other  pro- 
posed guarantee,  namely,  the  appointment  of  judges 
of  foreign  origin  in  the  Supreme  Court,  must  evi- 
dently be  abandoned  altogether.  It  is  almost  in- 
credible that  any  importance  should  ever  have  been 
attached  to  this  guarantee.  For,  in  the  first  place, 
since  appeals  are  carried  to  the  Supreme  Court  only 
on  questions  of  law,  not  on  questions  of  fact,  a 
foreign  suitor  could  not  hope  to  reach  that  court 
except  under  rare  circumstances ;  in  the  second 
place,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  much  confidence 
would  be  placed  in  judges  thus  employed ;  and,  in 
the  third,  to  the  majority  of  foreign  suitors  these 
judges  must  of  necessity  be  just  as  alien  as  their 
Japanese  colleagues.  It  was  natural  that  England, 
eminently  practical  as  she  is,  should  have  hesitated 
to  sign  any  covenant  embodying  such  a  shadowy 
condition  ;  and,  as  for  the  Japanese  Government,  it 
then  learned  beyond  doubt  that  no  guarantee  of  the 
kind  would  be  tolerated  by  the  nation. 

By  slow  and  painful  degrees,  therefore,  the  situa- 
tion had  been  simplified  until  nothing  more  is 
needed  than  a  trifling  exercise  of  liberal  statesman- 
ship. Will  Great  Britain  take  the  final  stej)  ?  Her 
waiting  policy  has  made  her  mistress  of  the  situation 
once  more.     In  the  days  of  Sir  Harry  Parkes,  and 


JAPAN  AND  FOREIGN  POWERS.  387 

again  in  the  days  of  Sir  Francis  Plunkett,  she  might 
have  earned  Japan's  perpetual  gratitude  by  practi- 
cally acknowledging  that  a  country  which  had  sacri- 
ficed so  much  in  the  cause  of  progress  deserved  some 
measure  of  trust  and  recognition.  But  she  suffered 
both  opportunities  to  pass  unutilised,  so  that  in 
1887  no  Power  was  less  respected  in  proportion  to 
its  strength,  or  less  considered  in  proportion  to  its 
interests.  Now,  however,  fortune  has  placed  the 
ball  for  the  third  time  at  her  feet.  The  Japanese 
Government  returns  to  her,  fully  persuaded  that, 
benevolent  as  may  be  the  intentions  of  other  States, 
it  rests  with  her  alone  to  solve  the  problem.  Lord 
Salisbury  has  to  decide  whether  Japan  shall  be  con- 
demned to  another  period  of  semi-isolation  and  corre- 
sponding humiliation,  whether  her  growing  ill-feeling 
against  foreign  arbitrariness  shall  be  suffered  to 
devolop,  to  the  detriment  of  her  civilisation,  and  to 
the  inconvenience — to  use  no  stronger  term— of  his 
countrymen  residing  within  her  borders,  or  whether 
all  sense  of  injury  shall  be  removed  by  treating  her 
as  an  equal,  and  allowing  her  to  throw  open  her 
whole  territories  to  the  commerce  of  the  world.  It 
is  not  a  trivial  consideration,  that  of  Japan's  foreign 
commerce.  In  ten  years  its  volume  has  more  than 
doubled,  growing  from  $00,000,000  in  187(J,  to 
$136,000,000  in  1889,  and  of  the  latter  total  nearly 
one  half  fell  to  Great  Britain's  share  alone.  This 
remarkable  development  has  taken  place  in  the 
teeth  of  unfavourable  conditions.  Confined  to  the 
narrow  limits  of  the  Treaty  Ports,  and  forbidden  In- 
law to  form  partnerships  with  Japanese,  the  foreign 


388  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

merchants  have  been  gradually  environed  by  a  ring 
of  native  monopolists,  who  absorb  the  lion's  share 
of  the  profits  and  effectually  prevent  free  competi- 
tion. Only  by  shrewd,  hard  toil  have  British  traders 
managed  to  hold  their  own,  and  it  is  natural  that, 
on  their  side  also,  there  should  have  grown  out 
of  such  unsatisfactory  conditions  a  feeling  of  dis- 
content and  distrust.  Being  imbued,  too,  with  the 
Occidental's  wonted  love  of  his  own  laws  and  his 
own  nation's  judicial  methods,  they  shrink  from  the 
experiment  of  submitting  to  Japanese  laws  and 
Japanese  tribunals.  But,  however  respectable  this 
instinct  may  be,  its  indulgence  cannot  be  perpetual. 
All  that  foreigners  can  reasonably  expect  to  find  in 
Japan  is  a  sound  system  of  intelligible  laws  and  a 
fairly  competent  judiciary.  Both  these  conditions 
are  already  satisfied — the  former  actually,  the  latter 
inferentially.  We  can  never  fully  guage  the  com- 
petence of  Japanese  judges  until  we  test  it  practi- 
cally in  their  courts.  What  we  know  is  that,  for 
the  past  twenty  years,  numbers  of  Japanese  have 
been  receiving  legal  education  at  well-equipped 
schools  and  colleges  in  Japan,  and  at  similar  institu- 
tions in  Europe  and  America ;  that  these  men  are 
now  sitting  on  the  Japanese  Bench  ;  and  that  when- 
ever they  have  been  required — as  they  are  required 
under  the  extra-territorial  system — to  adjudicate 
civil  cases  in  which  foreigners  are  plaintiffs  and 
their  own  people  defendants,  they  have  shown 
themselves  intelligent  and  impartial,  though  the 
imperfections  of  their  country's  legal  procedure 
have   often   involved   miscarriages   of  justice.     The 


JAPAN  AXD  FOREIGN  POWERS.  389 

laws,  in  short,  not  the  judges  administering  them, 
have  proved  unsatisfactory,  and  since  the  former  are 
now  thoroughly  amended  there  are  no  reasonable 
grounds  for  refusing  to  trust  the  latter.  If  England, 
by  an  act  of  liberal  and  in  no  sense  hazardous 
statesmanship,  helps  Japan  at  this  eleventh  Ik  au- 
to recover  her  judicial  and  tariff  autonomy,  and  to 
enter  the  comity  of  Western  nations  on  equal  terms, 
the  consequences  will  be  invaluable  to  British  pres- 
tige and  British  influence.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
England  again  hesitates,  not  only  will  Japan's  feel  ing- 
ot'mortification  be  intensified  into  strong  resentment, 
but  the  chances  of  a  friendly  understanding  will  pro- 
bably be  destroyed.  For  should  this  question  pass 
into  the  hands  of  the  Diet,  as  it  must  do  unless 
disposed  of  before  November,  there  is  only  too  much 
reason  to  fear  that  patient  and  conciliatory  methods 
having  been  found  fruitless,  recourse  will  be  had 
to  the  policy  of  retaliation.  By  putting  an  end 
to  the  system  of  passports,  and  thus  confining  aliens 
strictly  within  treaty  limits  ;  by  closing  her  internal 
posts  against  foreign  correspondence;  by  confining 
the  use  of  her  railways  and  coasting  steamers  to 
her  own  subjects;  and  by  other  methods  equally 
embarrassing,  Japan  might  exercise  pressure  scarcely 
tolerable  and  certain  to  engender  much  ill-will. 
Thus  far  no  disposition  of  the  kind  has  been  shown, 
but  the  action  of  the  people's  representatives  may  be 
very  different  from  that  of  the  prudent  and  liberal 
statesmen  who  now  direct  affairs.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say,  therefore,  that  upon  England's  decision 
at  this   crisis  depend   at   once  the   re-establishment 


39Q  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

of  her  own  influence  and  popularity  in  Japan  and 
the  future  character  of  foreign  relations  with  the 
only  nation  in  the  Orient  which  has  shown  itself 
possessed  of  the  true  instinct  of  civilised  progress. 

Yokohama,  Japan,  May  10,  1890. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

A    JAPANESE    EXHIBITION. 

Our  great  National  Exhibition  is  now  in  full  glory, 
visited  every  day  by  many  thousands  of  the  town 
and  country  people  of  Japan ;  and  it  presents  un- 
doubtedly, even  apart  from  its  local  and  picturesque 
aspet-t,  many  most  interesting,  artistic,  and  industrial 
features.  Its  buildings  are  situated  at  Uyeno,  a 
large  wooded  park,  on  rising  ground  in  the  north- 
west quarter  of  the  city,  as  well  known  to  Tokioites 
as  Hyde  Park  to  Londoners.  It  is  a  spot  full  of 
stirring  historical  memories  for  Japan.  The  great 
Shogun  Iyemitsu  erected  there  in  1()25  one  of  the 
finest  Buddhist  temples  of  the  land,  which  he  sur- 
rounded with  numerous  smaller  but  splendid  shrines, 
intended  to  render  this  north-west  quarter  of  the 
city,  which  is  the  specially  unlucky  point,  more 
favourably  regarded  by  the  gods.  A  son  of  the 
reigning  Emperor  was  always  high  priest  of  this 
temple,  being  kept  as  a  convenient  person  to  raise 
to  the  throne  if  the  Mikado's  party  at  Kyoto  proved 
troublesome  or  obstinate.  In  the  last  great  struggle, 
which  upset  the  Shogunate,  and  gave  back  to  the 
Mikado  his  Imperial  power  as  well  as  his  dignity, 
the  High  Priest  of  Uveno,  Prince  Kita  Si  lira  Kawa, 


392  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

was  actually  declared  Emperor,  and  carried  to  Aidzu, 
but  was  afterwards  pardoned  by  the  present  Mikado, 
and  sent  to  Germany  to  study,  and  is  now  living 
in  peaceful  simplicity  near  Shidzuoka.  At  the  foot 
of  the  leafy  hill  is  a  triple  bridge,  very  famous  in 
Japanese  story,  and  then  you  pass  a  temple  to  the 
Thousand-handed  goddess  Kwannon,  while  on  the 
left  is  the  shallow  lake  called  Shinobazu  No  Ike, 
which  will  be  covered  with  lotus  flowers  in  the 
autumn,  and  is  surrounded  with  temples  and  tea- 
houses. Under  the  trees  may  be  seen  an  enormous 
bronze  Buddha,  twenty-two  feet  high,  and  an  old 
black  gateway  pierced  full  of  bullet-holes  in  the 
great  battle  Of  1868.  Long  avenues  of  stone 
lanterns  are  here,  and  a  temple  to  the  memory  of 
the  Shogun  lye  Yasu,  in  which  hang  pictures  of 
the  San-jiu-rok-Rasen,  or  "  six-and-thirty  immortal 
poets."  It  is  saddening  to  reflect  that  you  do  not 
know,  and  that  I  have  now  forgotten,  the  names  of 
this  three  dozen  of  deathless  bards. 

In  the  early  spring-time  all  this  fair  and  famous 
green  eminence  was  covered  with  the  tinted  snow 
of  innumerable  cherry  trees,  so  that  you  walked  in 
the  lanes  and  avenues  of  Uyeno  under  a  canopy 
of  tenderly-tinted  blossoms,  filling  the  air  with  a 
fragrance  as  delicate  as  their  own  delicious  colour, 
and  for  a  time  transforming  the  hill  into  one  inter- 
lacing mass  of  roseate  glory.  Then  came  heavy 
rains  and  harsh  winds,  which  tore  the  dainty  trees 
to  pieces  at  the  moment  when  the  city  was  pre- 
paring to  take  its  yearly  delight  in  the  great  festival 
of  Spring.      It    was    a   sad    disappointment    and    a 


A  JAPANESE    EXHIBITION. 


393 


serious  blow,  not  only  to  the  pleasure-lovers,  but 
to  all  the  tea-house  people  and  k  urn  ma  men,  who 
at  the  season  of  the  cherry  blossoms  reap  a  rich 
harvest.  True,  there  was  one  wonderful  day,  spite 
of  the  evil  weather,  when  the  wind  filled  the  air 
with  fluttering  Hakes  of  pearly  white  and  rose-red 
leaflets,  leaving  still  on  the  trees  a  thick  soft  roof 
of  lovely  blossoms,  but  carpeting  the  ground  sole- 
deep  with  the  delicate  new  downfall  of  the  ruined 
buds  and  blossoms.  Then  the  trees  gave  it  all  up 
for  the  current  year,  and  took  to  mere  foliage,  which 
is  now  very  rich  and  massive,  rounding  off  the  dark 
green  columns  of  the  cryptomerias,  and  the  light 
green  feathers  of  the  bamboo,  with  this  wide-spread- 
ing spring  verdure  of  the  plums  and  cherries,  through 
high  banks  of  which  you  approach  the  now  flourish- 
ing and  popular  Exhibition. 

It  is  a  constant  dash  up  and  down  the  hilly  road, 
to  the  entrance,  of  jinrikishas,  a  constant  stream 
it])  and  down  on  the  side  walks  of  town  and  country 
people.  Here,  indeed,  you  see  all  Japan — the 
farmers'  wives  with  blue  handkerchiefs  upon  their 
black  hair,  and  gaiters  of  grey  silk  upon  their 
"honourable  legs;"  the  farmers  in  blue  coats, 
covered  with  wild  devices  in  white  or  red,  leading 
those  children  who  can  walk,  while  the  mothers 
patiently  carry,  or  publicly  suckle,  the  little  ones. 
Students  in  square  caps  and  red  stockings  mingle 
with  soldiers  in  cherry  coloured  breeches;  sailors 
clad  a  la  blue-jacket,  but  with  their  ship's  name  in 
Chinese  letters  on  their  cap;  f/i'is/ia*  in  gold  and 
scarlet,  skv-blue  and  orange,  brilliant  as  butterflies; 


394  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

demure  musum'es,  dressed  more  soberly,  but  still 
very  superbly,  with  dove-coloured  or  gold-striped 
kimono,  obi  of  rich-flowered  silk,  and  snow-white 
cloven  socks,  each  attended  by  a  maid  and  carrying 
an  umbrella  ;  children  dressed  like  tiger  moths  in 
all  the  colours  of  the  rainbow ;  immeasurably  old 
women  and  old  men  hobbling  to  see  the  latest  glories 
of  Nippon ;  policemen,  with  swords  and  spectacles, 
looking  half  professor,  half  soldier;  shrill  vendors 
of  Japanese  newspapers  and  plans  of  the  Exhibition, 
with  high  scarlet  caps ;  sleek,  bald-headed,  Buddhist 
priests ;  black  and  white  robed  Shinto  monks  and 
abbots ;  in  fact,  "  the  world  and  his  wife  "  of  Japan 
are  there.  You  take  your  ticket — if  you  do  not 
carry  a  complimentary  admission  card  covered  with 
gold  chrysanthemums — at  a  little  shed  outside  the 
gate,  where  the  highest  price  is  but  fifteen  sen  on 
Sundays,  and  you  get  in  on  Saturdays  for  three  sen, 
about  lhd. 

The  buildings  sheltering  the  Exhibition  are  of  no 
architectural  pretension,  being,  indeed,  mere  sheds 
run  up,  of  planks  and  paper,  to  house  the  varied 
and,  in  many  cases,  very  precious  things  inside.  To 
attempt  anything  like  an  enumeration  of  these  is, 
of  course,  not  my  purpose';  indeed,  only  to  walk 
through  all  the  halls  and  passages  once  would  give 
you,  it  is  said,  a  tramp  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  miles. 
For  there  is  something  of  everything  here,  and  it  is 
a  thousand  pities,  in  truth,  that  Japan  did  not  better 
understand  how  to  bring  over  in  good  time  those 
representative  Europeans  who  would  have  seen  what 
wonderful    things  she    can    make,  and  would    have 


A  JAPANESE   EXHIBITION.  395 

known  how  to  develop  from  them  new  opportunities 
of  commerce.  The  porcelain,  of  course,  is  in  many 
respects  marvellous,  although  for  the  most  part 
modern.  The  Japanese  potters  arc  to-day  working 
with  high  intelligence  to  recover  the  best  secrets 
of  the  old  days,  and  though  they  have  not  yet  quite 
achieved  the  splendid  colours  of  the  sang  tie  bceuf, 
and  of  the  dragon's  heart,  or  that  wonderful  Chinese 
black  which  has  green  and  gold  in  its  gloom,  vet 
they  have  mastered  a  pale  bine  under  the  glaze, 
which  is  as  lovely  as  the  old  azure  ever  was,  and 
there  are  treasures  here  in  the  way  of  cups  and 
teapots  quite  worthy  of  the  land  where  the  tea-leaf 
might  be  a  national  symbol.  Of  course,  there  are 
splendid  things  also  in  the  line  of  red  and  black 
lacquer,  powdered  with  gold  and  inlaid  with  mother- 
of-pearl  and  ivory ;  amazing  screens,  embroidered, 
inlaid,  and  lacquered  ;  delicate  gilded  shrines  ;  bronzes 
of  fantastic  and  fearless  design;  carved  ivories;  and 
the  richest  possible  specimens  of  embossed  brocades, 
with  silks  and  satins,  crapes  and  cottons,  woven  and 
dyed  with  a  fancy  at  once  daring  and  inexhaustible. 
But  in  the  industrial  department  what  strikes  the 
foreigner  most,  I  think,  is  the  matchless  skill  of  the 
Japanese  in  turnery  and  joinery.  There  are  here 
ranges  after  ranges  of  cabinets  and  writing-tables, 
&c,  which  might  have  been  put  together  by  the 
carpenters  of  Queen  Mab,  so  fine  and  exquisite  is 
the  fashioning  of  them,  while  yet  they  are  solid 
enough  for  the  hardest  service.  No  strange  timber 
grows  in  any  forest,  no  out-of-the-way  product  is 
found    in    the    earth    or    sea,    which     the    Japanese 


396  S£AS  AND   LANDS. 

craftsman  will  not  press  into  use,  making  the  tout 
ensemble  a  museum  of  materials.  Yet  the  plainest 
things  please  most — the  hibachi  or  fire-boxes,  so 
neat  and  convenient,  with  their  central  copper  re- 
ceptacle for  the  lighted  charcoal,  and  little  drawers 
and  unexpected  nests  and  compartments  everywhere  ; 
the  tansu  and  todana,  full  of  the  most  ingenious 
contrivances,  all  made  of  wood,  and  put  together 
with  amazing  exactitude.  One  would  think,  indeed, 
that  the  Japanese  joiner  worked  with  a  micrometer, 
so  perfect  is  the  article ;  but  it  is  rather  his  wonder- 
ful finger  and  thumb  and  true  eye  which  produce 
these  faultless  specimens  of  simple  construction. 

The  art  department  has  its  own  interest,  but  chiefly 
of  a  prospective  character.  In  drawing  and  painting 
Japan  is  at  present  half  unconsciously  going  through 
a  transition  stage.  She  has  observed,  and  silently 
adopted,  the  methods  of  the  Western  schools  in 
colour,  perspective,  and  even  treatment ;  nor  wrill  it 
be  long  before  you  see  in  the  West  oil  pictures  from 
Japanese  easels,  which  you  will  hardly  distinguish 
from  second-rate  works  of  French,  English,  or 
German  ateliers.  I  think  they  will  especially  excel 
in  landscape  and  architectural  painting.  But  there 
is  one  picture  here  by  a  well-known  artist  which 
marks  plainly  the  epoch  of  change.  It  represents 
the  Goddess  of  Mercy  riding  on  the  back  of  a  dragon 
through  the  foam  and  fury  of  a  stormy  sea,  the  sub- 
ject being  intensely  Japanese,  while  the  treatment 
is  almost  grotesquely  and  pathetically  European. 
There  are  not  wanting  majesty  and  sublimity  in  the 
goddess ;  her  robes  are  swept  back  against  her  limbs 


A  JAPANESE   EXHIBITION.  397 

and  breasts  by  the  fierce  wind,  which  drives  together 
behind  her  the  seething  crests  of  the  sea ;  while 
tongues  of  fire  issue  from  the  mouth  and  scales  of 
the  dragon,  wdiose  vast  length  coils  hideously  to 
leeward,  green  and  gold  in  the  ruffle  of  the  sea's 
green  and  white.  But  the  great  beast,  in  coming 
down  from  the  old  conventional  "  Ryo "  to  the 
natural  and  paintable,  has  parted  with  all  his 
traditional  terror,  and  is,  especially  about  the  head 
and  horns,  a  very  poor,  plain,  impossible  "  worm," 
hardly  so  imposing  as  the  Griffin  at  Temple  Bar. 
What  is  most  remarkable  is  the  artist's  earnest 
effort  to  make  it  a  European  picture  in  drawing  and 
handling,  and  in  the  texture  and  general  style. 

Near  at  hand  hang  many  similar  examples,  showing 
rather  the  desire  to  "  Westernise  "  Japanese  painting 
than  the  power  at  present  to  accomplish  this.  It  is 
much  to  be  wished  at  such  a  juncture  that  the  best 
of  the  young  Japanese  artists  could  go  over  to  the 
studios  of  the  leading  French  and  English  painters 
in  order  to  understand  better  than  they  do  to-day 
the  true  principles  of  our  modern  schools. 

There  are  one  or  two  little  statuettes  here,  in 
wood,  bronze,  and  unglazed  porcelain,  which  show 
that  though  sculpture  as  an  art  cannot  be  said  to 
exist  yet  in  Japan,  it  might  soon  and  successfully 
arise.  I  noticed  especially  a  dancing-girl  deliriously 
done  in  bisque,  and  a  figure  in  pear-wood  oi'njoc/nt 
or  servant-maid,  who  drowned  herself  in  a  well, 
having  been  scolded  for  losing  a  plate.  Her  ghost 
is  rising  from  the  water  with  soaked  garments  and 
with    long    hair    matted    by    water     upon     the    sad, 


398  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

suffering  face,  while  she  counts  on  her  fingers  the 
platters  which  were  the  cause  of  her  suicide.  The 
modeller  who  did  this  could  do  greater  things.  The 
agricultural  and  fishery  sections  are  also  full  of 
interest.  Indeed  the  Japanese  have  little  to  learn 
in  the  science  of  farming ;  their  rice  and  barley 
fields  are  models  of  intelligent  culture,  and  their 
implements  in  the  highest  degree  ingenious,  cheap, 
and  serviceable.  Tobacco,  tea,  rice,  and  silk  form, 
of  course,  the  principal  exhibits.  Of  coffee  they 
know  nothing,  and  as  for  fish,  wherever  they  swim 
the  Japanese  can  catch  them,  and  the  demand  is 
always  equal  to  the  supply,  for  the  population  really 
subsists  upon  fish  and  rice. 

At  this  season  there  are  floating  from  bamboo 
poles  in  front  of  half  the  houses  in  Tokio  huge  fish 
made  of  paper,  and  brilliantly  coloured  in  purple, 
scarlet,  and  blue.  These  are  to  celebrate  the  number 
of  male  children  in  the  household,  and  you  can  tell 
how  many  boys  the  family  boasts  by  counting  the 
big  and  little  fish,  puffed  out  by  the  wind,  and 
glittering  in  the  sunshine  under  a  big  gilded  globe 
of  basket-work.  The  fish  represented  is  the  Koi, 
which  is  regarded  by  the  Japanese  as  a  type  of 
courage,  perseverance,  and  fortitude.  I  asked  a 
Japanese  mother  why  this  particular  fish  was 
hoisted,  and  she  gave  me  these  two  reasons :  "  The 
koi,"  she  said,  "  if  he  is  placed  alive  on  a  dish, 
and  cut  while  living  into  twenty  slices,  will  not 
move  or  betray  any  pain,  and  even  when  red  pepper 
is  placed  upon  his  eye,  under  these  cruel  circum- 
stances condescends  to  give  only  one  slight  move- 


A  JAPANESE   EXHIBITION.  399 

ment  while  expiring."  She  also  said  that  when 
the  koi  ascends  the  streams  in  the  autumn,  nothing 
daunts  him  in  the  way  of  rapids  and  waterfalls,  and 
it  is  in  order  to  encourage  Japanese  lads  to  be  as 
patient  and  courageous  as  the  koi,  that  these  fish 
standards  are  yearly  floated. 

Within  the  Exhibition  you  can  only  get  tea  and 
cakes,  and  you  must  not  smoke,  except  outside  the 
buildings.  Consequently  there  is  a  great  rush  on 
emerging  for  the  regular  restaurants  and  large  tea- 
houses which  throng  all  round  the  hill  of  Uyeno, 
and  even  upon  its  summit,  under  the  great  crypto- 
merias ;  and  very  pleasant  it  is,  after  dazzling  the 
eyes  with  the  sight  of  the  beautiful  Cloisonne  ware 
and  glittering  Kaga  porcelains,  the  lovely  silk 
kimono  with  landscapes  and  ducks  and  storks 
woven  into  them,  and  all  the  wonders  of  the  show, 
to  drop  your  shoes  and  jmss  into  the  spotless  little 
apartment  of  some  tea-house  looking  over  the  city, 
and  there  dine  a  la  Japonaise,  in  Japanese  society, 
looking  over  the  vast  city  in  which  the  lights  begin 
to  twinkle.  The  bill  of  fare  is  bright  in  gold 
Chinese  letters  on  black  lacquer.  You  choose  your 
dishes — do  not  forget  to  let  "roast  eels  on  rice" 
figure  among  them — the  irresistible  unagimeshi — 
and  soon  the  sake-cup.  hot  and  fragrant,  goes 
round,  the  little  lacquereH^^dishes  surround  you, 
the  musumes  kneel  and  chatter,  your  Japanese 
friends  discuss  the  wonders  of  the  show,  daintily 
you  ply  your  chop-sticks  amid  boiled  iish  and 
delicate  slices  of  raw  fish,  the  kinto,  or  chestnut 
paste,  the   salted    plums,  and    pickled    peaches,  the 


4oo  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

prawns  on  cream,  and  the  bean-cakes.  Everybody 
drinks  with  everybody  else,  and  pretty  faces  flush  a 
little  with  the  rice-wine,  which  loosens  the  tongue 
and  animates  the  Tokio  talk,  till  the  gozen  comes, 
the  smoking  rice-bowl  and  the  tea,  and  all  the  city 
lamps  are  lighted.  It  is  time  to  go ! — the  kurumas 
are  called,  the  paper  lanterns  kindled,  and  in  a  light 
and  laughing  storm  of  "  mata  irrashais,"  "  Come 
soon  again,"  we  quit  the  Exhibition. 

Azabu,  May  19,  1890. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE   JAPANESE   SHAMPOOER. 

Oxe  of  the  most  ordinary  figures  in  the  Japanese 
streets  and  lanes  is  the  Amma-San,  or  shampooer. 
By  daytime  you  will  see  him  wending  his  slow  way 
— for  he  is  quite  blind — through  the  throng,  guiding 
himself  and  warning  others  to  keep  clear  of  him,  by 
the  bamboo  staff  which  he  carries,  and  with  which 
he  constantly  touches  the  ground  a  little  in  advance 
of  his  footsteps.  By  night  you  hear  rather  than  see 
him,  tootling  a  melancholy  note,  something  like  the 
cry  of  a  plover,  upon  a  little  reed  flute,  which  he 
bears  with  him.  As  mentioned  above  he  is  blind, 
and  his  profession,  as  one  who  practices  the  scientific 
"massage,"  is  the  great  resource  of  blind  men  and 
women  in  Japan,  who  would  otherwise  prove  a 
burden  on  their  families,  but  are  here  a  source  of 
support,  very  often,  indeed,  amassing  wealth,  and 
adding  the  profession  of  money-lending  to  their 
original  vocation.  The  blind  shampooer  would  not 
be  possible  where  wheel-traffic  existed.  His  plain- 
tive cry  would  be  drowned  in  the  uproar  of  hoofs 
and  wheels,  and  he  himself  would  be  run  over  a 
hundred  times.  But  in  Tokio  there  is  nothing  for 
him  to  fear  except  the  jhirikishas,  which   make  no 


4o2  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

noise,  and  which  scrupulously  avoid  colliding  with 
children  and  the  Amma-San.  He  himself  has  the 
quick  faculty  which  the  blind  display  of  seeming  to 
see  with  their  ears,  and  walks  without  hesitation  or 
danger  in  the  quarter  with  which  he  is  familiar.  In 
dress  and  aspect  there  is  nothing  to  distinguish  him 
except  his  hands ;  but  these,  it  will  generally  be 
observed,  are  kept  very  clean  and  soft,  and  his  whole 
appearance  is  usually  neat  and  respectable. 

It  will  probably  not  be  long  during  a  sojourn  in 
Japan  before,  either  for  curiosity  or  actual  necessity, 
you  invoke  the  aid  of  the  Amma-San.  There  are  a 
good  many  changes  in  the  Jajmnese  climate,  and  a 
great  many  draughts  in  Japanese  houses,  and  some 
day  or  other  what  your  attendants  call  "  your  honour- 
able limbs  "  get  a  touch  of  stiffness  or  pain,  which 
will  be  best  removed,  they  tell  you,  by  the  well- 
established  Japanese  remedy  of  the  human  hand. 
Accordingly  a  messenger  is  despatched  to  stop  a 
passing  Amma-San,  or  to  send  for  one  of  good 
credit  residing  in  the  neighbourhood.  I  myself, 
having  contracted  a  passing  twinge  of  rheumatism, 
made  very  successful  experiment  in  this  way,  not 
long  ago.  But  I  would  not  engage  a  male  sliam- 
pooer,  and  I  rather  wonder  that  any  person  of  taste 
allows  a  man  to  pummel  and  knead  him  when  there 
are  plenty  of  middle-aged,  blind,  cleanly,  and  respect- 
able women  ammas  who  have  softer  hands,  gentler 
ways,  and  are  altogether  more  agreeable  as  practi- 
tioners. Accordingly  I  sent  for  a  skilful  lady,  named 
O  Kiku  San,  which  means  of  course,  "  Madame 
Chrysanthemum,"  albeit  an  extremely  different  person 


THE  JAPANESE   SHAMPOOER.  403 

from  the  ill-rewarded,  but  wonderfully  well  described, 
heroine  of  M.  Pierre  Loti's  book.  O  Kiku  San, 
being  introduced  to  my  bedroom,  and  kneeling 
down  by  my  side,  for  I  always  sleep  on  the  floor 
in  Japan,  made  the  usual  graceful  salutations,  which 
by  this  time  are  so  familiar  to  our  ears.  With  fore- 
head on  the  mats  she  murmurs,  "  As  to  the  evening." 
I  respond,  "  As  to  the  evening ;  you  are  welcome." 
On  learning  the  seat  of  the  malady  she  begins  her 
treatment,  after  I  have  mentioned  that  she  shall 
receive  twice  the  usual  rate  of  pay  that  she  may 
work  with  a  better  will.  You  are  not  inclined  to 
believe,  of  course,  very  much  at  first  in  the  efficacy 
of  those  small  taps  from  the  finger-ends  which  com- 
mence proceedings.  But  very  soon,  when  your 
quiet,  sightless  physician  has  gained  a  fair  idea, 
by  your  exclamations  of  pain  and  impatience,  where 
the  trouble  is  really  lodged,  it  is  astonishing  how  you 
begin  to  take  interest  in  the  operation  and  to  become 
soothed  by  it. 

The  Moxa  is  another  method  of  treatment  highly 
popular  in  Japan,  although  the  European  is  not  very 
likely  to  often  avail  himself  of  it.  This  word,  as 
meaning  the  actual  cautery,  is  familliar  to  English 
medicine,  but  has  been  derived,  though  few  people 
know  it,  directly  from  the  Japanese.  The  real 
word  is  Mogusa,  a  contraction  of  Moe-Rusa,  which 
means  the  "  burning  herb,"  because  the  leaves  of 
an  Artemisia  (what  we  call  the  "Mugwort")  are 
employed  in  the  operation.  Dried  fragments  of 
this  are  rolled  into  a  cone,  stuck  upon  the  body 
in  the  place  affected,  set  lire  to,  and  then  allowed 


4o4  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

to  burn  down  to  the  skin  like  a  ])astille.  This  is 
considered  extremely  efficacious  for  all  sorts  of  ills, 
including  fainting  fits,  nose-bleeding,  and  even  the 
pains  of  child-birth,  as  well  as  rheumatism,  lumbago, 
&c.  You  will  often  see  a  double  row  of  little  scars 
up  and  down  the  spine  of  your  jim^i/cis/ia-maii,  or 
decorating  the  back  of  his  thighs  and  calves,  and 
Mr.  Chamberlain  tells  a  story  of  a  child  who,  having 
set  a  house  on  fire,  and  become  thereby  liable  to  the 
old  severe  law  of  the  Empire,  which  condemned  a 
person  guilty  of  arson  to  be  himself  burnt  alive, 
was  taken  to  the  place  of  execution,  but  let  off 
with  an  unusually  severe  and  solemn  dose  of  the 
moc/usa. 

There  is  a  third  very  popular  and  rather  painful 
treatment  adopted  by  the  Jajmnese,  known  to  us 
as  acu-puncture,  and  to  the  Japanese  by  the  word 
shin-jutsu.  This  has  been  practised  in  Japan  ever 
since  the  history  of  the  Empire  began,  and  is  much 
believed  in  as  a  stimulant  and  counter-irritant.  Dr. 
Whitney,  in  his  notes  on  medicine  in  Japan,  tie- 
scribes  it  as  follows :  "  As  practised  by  the  acu- 
puncturists, the  operation  consists  in  perforating 
the  skin  and  underlying  tissues,  to  a  depth,  as  a 
rule,  not  exceeding  one-half  to  three-quarters  of  an 
inch,  with  fine  needles  of  gold,  silver,  or  steel.  The 
form  and  construction  of  these  needles  vary ;  but, 
generally  speaking,  they  are  several  inches  long, 
and  of  an  average  diameter  of  one  forty-eighth  of 
an  inch.  Each  needle  is  usually  fastened  into  a 
handle,  which  is  spirally  grooved  from  end  to  end. 
To  perform  the  operation  the  handle  of  the  needle 


THE  JAPANESE   SHAMPOOEK.  405 

is  held  lightly  between  the  thumb  and  first  linger 
of  the  left  hand,  the  point  resting  upon  the  spot 
to  be  punctured.  A  slight  blow  is  then  given  upon 
the  head  of  the  instrument  with  a  small  mallet,  held 
in  the  right  hand,  and  the  needle  is  gently  twisted 
until  its  point  has  penetrated  to  the  desired  depth, 
where  it  is  left  for  a  few  seconds,  and  then  slowly 
withdrawn,  and  the  skin  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
puncture  rubbed  for  a  few  moments.  The  number 
of  perforations  range  from  one  to  twenty,  and  they 
are  usually  made  in  the  skin  of  the  abdomen, 
although  other  portions  of  the  body  are  not  unfre- 
quently  punctured." 

The  Japanese  suffer  from  many  special  diseases 
due  to  a  too  exclusive  diet  on  fish  and  rice,  and  to 
the  want  of  exercise — especially  from  indigestion ; 
but  they  escape  a  great  many  by  their  exquisite 
personal  cleanliness.  The  "  tub "  is  more  of  an 
institution  in  Japan  than  in  England  itself,  and  even 
as  far  back  as  the  beginning  of  Japanese  history  we 
find  the  god  Izanagi  bathing  himself  every  morning. 
Every  fairly  large  house  in  Tokio  has  its  own  bath- 
room ;  but  besides  this  there  are  no  less  than  800 
baths  in  the  city  of  Tokio,  where  300,000  persons 
bathe  daily  at  a  cost  per  head-  of  one  sen  three  rin, 
or  about  a  halfpenny.  A  reduction  of  three  rin  is 
made  for  children.  They  take  their  baths  at  a  very 
high  temperature — about  110  degrees  Fahrenheit — 
and  come  out  of  them  as  red  as  lobsters ;  but  there 
appears  to  be  no  fear  whatever  of  catching  cold. 
Thus,  though  the  Japanese  we'ar  no  underlinen, 
except  the  loin  cloth,  fundoshi,  of  the  men,  and  the- 


4o6  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

koshi  make  and  imogi  of  the  women,  a  Japanese 
crowd  is  the  sweetest  and  least  objectionable  in  the 
world ;  indeed,  the  natural  odour  of  the  people  is 
not  unlike  that  of  the  leaf  of  the  lemon  geranium. 
They  have  an  especial  passion  for  the  hot  mineral 
springs  with  which  the  country  abounds,  and  at  some 
places,  such  as  Kawanaka,  in  the  province  of  Jonshu, 
there  are  bathers  who  will  stay  in  the  water  for  a 
whole  week  at  a  time,  with  a  stone  in  their  laps  to 
keep  them  from  floating  in  their  sleep ! 

One  curious  but  imaginary  malady  in  this  country 
— not  the  less  real  on  account  of  its  being  fanciful — 
quite  commonly  seen  in  the  hospitals,  especially 
among  women  of  the  lower  classes,  is  kitsune-isuki, 
or  "  possession  by  foxes."  The  fox  is  the  magic 
beast  par  excellence  of  the  land,  and  an  hysterical 
woman  will  often  believe  that  she  is  inhabited  by  a 
demon  beast  of  this  description.  The  idea  is  that 
the  fox  enters  the  body  through  the  breast,  by  the 
eyes,  or  even  between  the  finger-nails  and  the  flesh, 
and  resides  there,  the  person  possessed  knowing 
what  the  fox  inside  says  and  thinks,  and  even  main- 
taining long  conversations  with  him,  the  fox  speak- 
ing in  a  different  voice  from  her  own.  The  priests 
of  the  Nicheren  sects  of  Buddhists  are  very  success- 
ful expellers  of  foxes.  The  fox  inside,  being  seri- 
ously adjured  by  prayers  and  spells,  mentions  what 
cakes  and  other  offerings  he  will  accept  to  quit  his 
victim  ;  and  these  having  been  duly  laid  on  the  altar 
of  the  temple,  the  fox  generally  takes  himself 
"  honourably  "  off,  and  the  patient  recovers. 

But    as    a    matter    of   fact    Japan    has   accepted 


THE  JAPANESE   SHAMPOOER.  407 

modern  and  scientific  medicine,  and  many  of  the 
native  Japanese  practitioners  are  accomplished  and 
successful  gentleman,  employing  all  modern  methods 
and  resources.  In  one  native  household  where  I 
have  the  privilege  of  entry  a  lady  of  the  family  lay 
very  unwell,  with  a  sort  of  hysterical  indigestion. 
Her  people  had  administered  in  vain  a  large  selection 
of  popular  Japanese  nostrums,  many  of  them  very 
nasty,  and  none,  in  this  case  at  least,  at  all  efficacious. 
The  young  lady  herself,  as  a  last  and  sovereign 
resort  called  for  and  swallowed  a  small  picture  of 
Buddha  on  a  piece  of  soft  paper,  about  as  large  as 
a  postage  stamp.  She  was  a  little  vexed  because  I, 
with  all  my  natural  respect  for  the  great  promulgator 
of  the  "Light  of  Asia,"  was  disinclined  to  believe 
that  the  sacred  engraving;  of  the  Tatha-gata  could 
do  her  the  slightest  good.  Severe  spasms  of  pain, 
with  constant  sleeplessness,  pointed  to  the  necessity 
of  a  little  hypodermic  injection  of  morphia,  which 
I  advised,  and  the  Isha-Sa.71  was  accordingly  sent  for, 
and  told  to  bring  the  syringe.  A  Japanese  girl  is 
too  much  accustomed  from  youth  to  the  mom  and 
the  needle  to  mind  the  little  steel  point.  The 
doctor  came,  and,  before  kneeling  at  the  side  of 
the  patient,  sipped  his  cup  of  tea,  and  made  the 
usual  necessary  remarks  about  the  "  honourable 
weather  "  and  our  "  honourable  healths."  He  took 
the  same  view  as  I  about  the  hysterical  pains  and 
the  insomnia,  whereupon  the  silken  sleeve  of  the 
kimono  was  rolled  back,  the  shapely  brown  arm  was 
bared,  and  with  a  little  exclamation  from  the  gentle 
sufferer  of  "Ah !    setsunai!    setsunai!"  the    divine 


4o8  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

anodyne  was  injected.  Then  the  soft  black  eyes 
were  soon  closed  in  prolonged  slumber,  the  pains 
disappeared  by  the  next  morning,  and  O  Hani  San 
was  playing  the  samisen  when  I  called  again,  in  her 
perfect  health  and  spirits. 

Azabu,  June  10, 1890. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

A    DAY    IN    FLOWERLAND. 

My  Japanese  fellow-citizens  love  dearly  a  day  in 
the  country.  They  would  make  the  fortune  of 
excursion  trains  and  of  holiday  contractors,  if  such 
things  were  established  here.  They  seize  every 
opportunity  to  go  for  little  expeditions  to  temples, 
shrines,  and  famous  points  of  view ;  but,  most  of 
all,  Flora,  Goddess  of  Spring,  helps  them,  by  pro- 
viding month  after  month,  and  indeed  almost  week 
by  week,  some  new  national  flower,  coming  suddenly 
into  blossom.  Thus  even  our  own  little  garden  has 
marked  the  progress  of  the  year  by  a  pretty  natural 
calendar  of  blooms.  We  had,  first  of  all,  the  autumn 
and  winter  chrysanthemums — kiku  ;  then,  almost  in 
the  middle  of  the  frost,  the  camellia,  txubalci,  came 
out,  with  rose-coloured  or  rosy-white  flowers.  The 
single  variety  of  this  beautiful  plant,  however,  is 
not  very  popular  with  the  Japanese,  because  the  red 
blossoms  fall  off  entire,  and  painfully  remind  people 
here  of  amputated  heads.  Before  the  winter  was 
gone  the  early  plum  and  cherry  whitened  our  hill- 
sides with  the  fragrant  snow  of  their  blossoms;  but 
the  weather  was  very  cruel,  and  swept  away,  with 
rain    and    wind,  the    best    glory  of   that  wonderful 


4i o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

display.  The  tree-peony  (botan)  and  the  lovely 
scarlet  leaves  of  the  budding  maples  carried  us 
through  April  into  May,  for  the  Japanese,  be  it 
understood,  include  all  brightly-coloured  leaves 
under  the  general  name  of  "flowers"  (hana).  The 
first  week  in  May  was  everywhere  embellished  with 
the  lilac-and- white  clusters  of  the  wistaria ;  we  our- 
selves boasted  the  possession  of  a  bower  which  for 
a  whole  week  was  roofed  thick  with  the  delicate 
racemes  of  this  beautiful  climber,  shutting  the  sun 
out  by  a  screen  of  soft  colour  and  fragrance,  and 
constantly  musical  with  countless  bees.  About  the 
same  time  the  azaleas  lighted  with  all  sorts  of  hues 
our  own  garden  and  those  around  us,  as  well  as 
the  country  generally.  We  had  here  in  Azabu, 
encircling  our  little  artificial  lake,  a  score  of  azalea 
bushes,  which  burst  suddenly  into  masses  of  blood- 
red  bloom,  as  if  they  had  been  flames  lighted  round 
the  water.  I  have  not  mentioned  the  ilexes,  with 
wax-white  flowers ;  the  purple  and  white  magnolias, 
the  Cleyera,  sacred  to  the  sun-goddess ;  the  red 
berries  of  the  aucuba  ( the  Japanese  name  from 
which  you  take  that  is  Aivoki  ba !)  ;  the  yellow 
valerium,  which  the  Japanese  call  0  Nina  meshi — 
"  court  lady's  dress  "  ;  the  Asarum,  which  has  given 
its  leaf  as  a  badge  to  the  great  Tokugawa  Shoguns ; 
and  all  the  beautiful  lilies  of  the  country  now  coming 
into  season,  many  of  them  being  quite  peculiar  to 
Japan.  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that  we  have  been 
eating  lately  at  every  Japanese  lunch  or  dinner 
boiled  bulbs  of  the  lily.  They  are  uncommonly 
nice,  and   far  superior   in   flavour   and  delicacy  to 


A   DAY  IN  FLOWERLAND.  411 

any  artichoke ;  but  it  is  a  very  serious  thing  for 
the  sincere  lover  of  flowers  to  trifle  with  his  chop- 
sticks over  the  soft,  sweet  flakes  of  a  root  which 
would  have  produced  the  beautiful  rose-hued  blooms 
of  the  Lilium  japonicum,  the  glorious  petals  of  the 
L'dium  Auratum,  the  deep  orange  splendours  of  the 
Lilium  elegant,  or  the  gold  cup,  jewelled  with  agate 
spots,  of  the  hirado  yuri.  If  there  be  .such  a  crime 
as  floricide  we  have  all  been  guilty  of  it  latterly. 

Now  it  is  the  time  for  the  irises,  which  suddenly 
come  into  full  glory  in  many  a  pool  and  swam])  near 
the  capital,  and  furnish  excuses  for  innumerable 
outings.  Among  many  spots  where  the  beautiful 
sweet  flag  can  be  seen  in  all  her  splendour,  there  is 
one  in  particular,  called  Hori-kiri,  which  is  a  very 
popular  resort.  I  repaired  thither  yesterday,  with 
three  or  four  Japanese  friends,  on  a  lovely  day  of 
our  early  summer,  and  a  little  sketch  of  those  "  eight 
hours  by  the  river-side "  may  serve  to  convey  a 
general  idea  of  a  Nippon  holiday. 

We  were  economical,  and  Hori-kiri  was  afar  off, 
so  it  was  determined  to  proceed  thither  by  easy  and 
inexpensive  stages.  We  walk  accordingly  down 
from  Azabu  through  the  Kuboi-cho  to  Shim-bashi. 
The  streets  are  brighter  than  usual,  because  the 
people,  if  they  wear  anything  at  all,  have  donned 
their  light  summer  kimono.  The  women  especially, 
in  bright,  gay-coloured  garments  of  cotton  and  crepe, 
tied  with  an  obi  of  glancing  silk,  look  as  cool  and 
fresh  as  ice-creams.  Many  Kori-midzu  shops  have 
been  newly  opened — establishments  where  they  grate 
up  ice  into  a  tumbler  and  sell  it  for  a  farthing ;  and 


4i2  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

such  is  the  national  simplicity  and  sobriety  of  taste 
that  nobody  wants  any  flavour  or  liquor  put  into  this 
refreshment.  The  fan  shops,  scarcely  to  be  seen  in 
the  winter,  have  now  burst  forth  like  butterflies  into 
many-tinted  glory,  and  everybody  carries  a  fan,  the 
women  the  unfolding  uchiwa,  the  men  the  ogi,  which 
folds.  The  roads  are  full  of  lively-coloured  paper 
umbrellas,  but  the  great  fashion  now  with  Japanese 
ladies  is  to  carry  a  European  parosol  or  sunshade  of 
the  gingham  type.  Everybody  waters  the  road  before 
his  door  with  a  little  wooden  scoop,  and  coming 
round  a  corner  abruptly  some  of  us  receive  a  slight 
unintended  sprinkling.  Overwhelmed  with  regret 
and  self-blame,  and  devoured  with  remorse  is  the 
akindo — the  merchant;  he  brings  clean  paper  to 
dry  our  skirts,  and  calls  himself  bad  names  in  gentle 
Japanese ;  but  we  console  him  by  saying,  "  O  tagai 
de  gozarimas  " — "  It  is  the  honourable  mutuality  " — 
in  other  words,  "  It  was  our  fault  as  much  as  yours." 
So  we  part  friends.  The  jinrikisha-men  have  stripped 
as  much  as  the  law  allows  them  for  their  trying  work, 
and  disclose  the  most  extraordinary  patterns  tattoed 
on  their  brown  flesh.  One  who  presses  us  very 
much  to  ride  might  almost  have  been  styled  the 
"  Illustrated  Tokio  News  ;  "  he  had  upon  his  person 
so  many  dragons,  stars,  incidents  of  his  own  and  of 
the  national  history,  and  other  devices. 

At  the  Shimbashi  end  of  the  Ginza,  the  chief 
street  of  Tokio,  our  party  of  five  mount  the  tram- 
car,  which  will  take  us  for  something  very  small  to 
Asakusa.  A  Buddhist  priest  and  six  or  eight  of  the 
common  people  also  enter.     All  but  the  priest  begin 


A   DAY  IN  FLOWERLAND.  413 

to  smoke  little  brass  or  silver  pipes,  and  the  con- 
ductor, who  wears  a  basin  hat  and  red  stockings, 
supplies  us  all  round  with  a  light.  The  conversa- 
tion turns  upon  the  terribly  high  price  of  rice — 
home — which  is  thirteen  yen  the  hohu  at  present, 
instead  of  being  but  seven  or  eight,  as  in  ordinary 
times.  The  consequence  is  very  serious  distress 
among  the  poor,  until  the  new  rice,  which  is  now 
covering  the  country  with  green,  comes  into  the 
market.  The  European  residents,  led  by  the  Arch- 
deacon of  Tokio,  are  doing  what  they  can  to  assist 
their  indigent  neighbours,  and  I  am  myself  to  give 
a  reading  in  the  "  Hall  of  the  Cry  of  the  Stag," 
which  may,  I  trust,  help  to  fill  some  rice-pots  in  our 
quarter. 

After  a  long  ride  down  the  Ginza  and  over 
Nihombashi,  or  "  Japan  bridge,"  from  which  ancient 
structure  all  the  roads  to  the  empire  are  measured, 
we  descend  near  the  great  temple  of  Asakusa,  since 
our  ladies  have  a  purchase  or  two  to  make,  and  a 
prayer  to  offer  at  the  famous  shrine.  We  walk  up 
through  the  long  row  of  booths  leading  to  the  temple 
steps,  and  under  the  great  gate- guarded  by  the  two 
red  wooden  giants.  On  the  left  is  the  shrine  of  Jizo, 
the  helper  of  those  in  trouble,  of  travellers,  and 
pregnant  women  ;  together  with  some  prayer-wheels 
and  places  where  you  buy  grain  for  the  innumerable 
sacred  pigeons,  and  salt  and  incense  for  offerings. 
Near  at  hand  is  a  stall  where  expectant  mothers 
may  purchase  tiekets  to  tell  them  whether  a  child 
about  to  be  born  will  be  a  boy  or  girl.  On  the  right 
a  great  red  five-storeyed  pagoda  soars  aloft  sacred  to 


4i4  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

the  "  five  Buddhas  of  contemplation,"  and  there  is  a 
rinzo,  or  revolving  library,  where  for  eight  rin  you 
may  twist  round  all  the  6771  volumes  of  the 
Buddhist  scriptures.  Do  not  say  you  have  no  desire 
to  make  all  this  literature  revolve !  Get  some  one 
to  read  you  the  ticket  over  the  door,  which  says  "  so 
numerous  are  the  holy  books  that  no  one  can  read 
them  all  through,  but  equal  to  his  merit  who  has 
read  them  is  that  of  him  who  causes  them  here  to 
turn  three  times  on  the  stone  lotus.  He  will  have 
long  years  and  happiness,  and  will  escape  many 
disasters  of  life."  Near  at  hand  is  a  little  shrine, 
where  you  can  learn  your  fortune  in  a  peculiar  way. 
You  ^  rite  your  desire  on  a  slip  of  paper,  attach  it  to 
the  wire  grating,  and  then  pull  off  and  read  any  one 
of  the  numerous  slips  which  votaries  before  you  have 
affixed  there.  You  find  your  answer  in  the  phrase- 
ology of  that.  It  is  a  religious  variant  of  the  game 
of  "  cross  questions  and  crooked  answers."  Ascend- 
ing the  temple-steps,  my  Japanese  friends  pull  the 
rope  which  summons  the  attention  of  Heaven,  and 
make  their  brief  supplications.  Then  we  turn  down 
a  bye-street  towards  the  great  iron  bridge  which 
crosses  the  Sumida  river,  and  on  our  way  join  in  the 
hunt  of  a  brown  weasel,  the  itachi,  who  gets  his 
living  in  Tokio  by  himself  chasing  rats.  The  broad 
river,  which  runs  through  the  city  into  the  Gulf  of 
Yeddo,  is  lively  with  innumerable  rice-boats  and 
small  junks,  drifting  with  square  sails  before  the 
wind.  At  the  foot  of  the  bridge  there  is  a  jin- 
rikisha  stand,  and  the  kuruma  men,  guessing  our 
business,  say,  "  Shobu  ?  "     "  Are  you  going  to  the 


A    DAY  IN  FLOWERLAND.  415 

irises  ?  "  Then  ensue  solemn  negotiations,  for  the 
Japanese  count  their  sen  and  make  contracts  when 
they  ride  ;  but  everything  being  amicably  concluded, 
we  mount,  and  are  bowled  away  down  the  cherry- 
tree  avenue  of  Mukojima,  extending  for  a  mile  and  ;i 
half  along  the  river  bank.  In  the  season  of  flowers 
this  avenue  is  an  interminable  vista  of  silver  and 
roseate  beauty,  and  for  days  together  the  entire  road 
is  carpeted  with  the  pink  snow  of  the  dropping 
blossoms.  Now  it  is  merely  green  and  shady,  lined 
with  many  tea-sheds  and  villas,  having  at  the  end  of 
it  the  little  temple  of  Mmewaka,  the  child  of  a  noble 
house,  who  died  on  this  spot,  carried  off  by  a  slave 
merchant.  His  mother  seeking  him  found  the 
villagers  burying  his  body  here,  but  he  appeared  to 
her  under  the  form  of  a  weeping  willow  tree,  which 
still  grows  in  the  place,  and  if  it  rains  on  March  15, 
his  memorial  day,  the  folks  call  the  rain-drops  from 
the  tree  "  Mmewaka's  tears." 

We  turn  presently  from  the  river  bank,  wheeling 
along  narrow  paths  between  rice  fields  and  marshy 
farms,  where  the  young  rice  plants  are  growing 
green  in  the  water,  and  great  bushes  of  hydrangea, 
with  pale  blue  blossoms,  beautify  the  ride.  Clumps 
of  irises  shoot  up  in  many  little  private  gardens, 
but  the  sight  of  sights  is  reserved  for  the  moment 
when  our  kurumas  wheel  sharply  round  under  the 
gateway  of  an  enclosure  and  draw  up,  among  a 
great  many  other  similar  vehicles,  in  front  of  a 
Japanese  inn  overlooking  grounds  of  two  or  three 
acres  in  extent.  These  grounds  are  diversified  in 
the   usual   style   by    little    hillocks   and    clumps  of 


416  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

dwarf  trees,  amid  which  are  perched  several  small 
supplementary  buildings,  where  visitors  may  rest  and 
take  refreshment.  One  of  these  is  allotted  to  our 
party.  We  remove  our  shoes,  ascend  the  stone 
steps,  and,  seated  on  the  mats  while  tea  is  being 
brought  and  preparations  are  being  made  for  our 
meal,  survey  the  scene  of  beauty  under  our  eyes. 
Two  large  pools  of  water  are  full  of  the  sweetflag, 
Acorus  Calamus,  blossoming  in  full  perfection,  and 
with  a  range  of  colours  between  snowy  white  and 
white  touched  with  rose  and  lilac,  through  every 
tint  of  royal  purple,  rich  blues,  mauve,  madder, 
lilac,  magenta,  and  pink,  to  an  almost  black  violet. 
Here  and  there  are  blooms  of  deep  gold,  belonging 
to  a  kindred  species,  the  general  effect  being  in  a 
lavish  degree  lovely  and  bewitching ;  and  we  sit 
on  the  mats  more  absorbed  in  contemplation  of 
the  beautiful  Ayame  than  busy  with  our  chopsticks 
or  the  little  cups  of  fish  soup,  stewed  lily  roots, 
rice,  and  sake  with  which  we  are  quickly  sur- 
rounded. The  individual  blossoms  are  magnificent 
in  size  and  glorious  in  colour.  We  hold  a  long 
discussion  as  to  which  must  be  called  the  most 
lovely,  and  finish  by  adjudging  the  palm  to  the 
pearl-white  flag  with  the  golden  heart  and  streaks 
of  pale  blue.  No  wonder  that  the  Japanese  call 
their  daughters  by  the  name  of  this  fair  national 
flower,  "  O  Ayame  San."  When  we  have  paid  our 
kanjd,  and  rise  to  leave,  they  bring  us  a  bundle  of 
iris  buds,  cut  with  long  stalks,  and  rolled  up  neatly 
in  matting,  to  put  in  water  on  our  return,  as  well 
as  a    fan  for    each    individual,  with    an  iris    flower 


A    DAY  IN  FLOWERLAND.  417 

painted  on  it,  and  the  name  "  Hori-Kiri,"  which 
after  all  only  means  the  place  of "  ditch  cutting." 
Our  kurumas  are  wheeled  up,  we  trundle  back  in 
the  cool  evening  to  Azuma  Bridge,  and  thence  make 
our  way  a  little  tired  and  hot,  but  very  well  pleased, 
to  the  shades  of  Azabu. 

Azabu,  June  20,  1890. 


30 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

A    JAPANESE    HEALTH    RESORT 

About  fifty  miles  away  from  Yokohama,  along  the 
sea-shore,  and  then  by  a  sharp  turn  into  the  high- 
lands which  are  grouped  around  Fuji-San,  lies  em- 
bosomed the  lovely  and  salubrious  Japanese  health 
resort,  whence  I  am  writing  this.  Fifteen  hundred 
feet  above  the  Pacific  and  the  hot  plains,  we  have 
escaped  hither,  for  a  time,  shunning  the  now  some- 
what sultry  weather  of  the  capital  and  its  ubiquitous 
mosquitoes,  which  are  more  bloodthirsty  and  importu- 
nate in  Tokio  than  anywhere.  The  Ka,  bred  in  the 
rice-fields  and  ditches  of  Nippon,  is  truly  a  most 
relentless  and  insatiable  little  pest,  against  which 
natives  and  foreigners  equally  defend  themselves 
with  kaya  or  nets  of  green  muslin,  made  either 
large  enough  to  cover  a  European  four-poster,  or 
small  enough  to  place  over  a  sleeping  baby.  At 
this  season  of  the  year  you  may  indeed  see  hundreds 
of  tiny  brown  Japanese  infants  sleeping,  stark  naked, 
beneath  what  looks  like  a  green  meat-safe,  where 
the  flies  and  mosquitoes  cannot  get  at  them.  Not 
only  the  babies,  moreover,  but  their  fathers,  mothers, 
"  sisters,  cousins,  and  aunts,"  and  the  Japanese  world 
in  general,  largely  discard  clothing  as  the  July  heats 


A  JAPANESE  HEALTH  RESORT.  419 

come  on ;  and,  in  the  country  especially,  one  sees  at 
this  time  more  of  the  people — in  a  very  literal  sense 
— than  during  the  cooler  weather.  One  result  is  to 
disclose  the  really  splendid  illustrations  with  which 
a  great  many  of  the  men  are  adorned  by  the  tattooer. 
The  jinrikisha  pullers  in  particular  are  ofttimes  gor- 
geously pictorial  from  nape  to  heel,  and  you  may 
study  for  an  hour  the  volutes,  arabesques,  flowers, 
gods,  dragons,  and  poetical  inscriptions  on  the  back 
of  your  coolie  as  you  bowl  along,  without  exhausting 
the  wealth  of  design  and  colouring  upon  the  saffron 
surface  of  his  skin. 

The  journey  hither  from  Yokohama  leads  by  rail- 
way through  interminable  rice-fields  lying  between 
the  hills  and  the  sea,  all  the  square  patches  now 
"  green  as  grass "  with  the  sprouting  roots  of  the 
ine.  Last  year  Inare,  the  deity  of  the  rice  plant — 
who  has  the  fox  for  his  attendant — gave  Japan  a 
bad  harvest,  and  the  poor  are  greatly  suffering  in 
consequence.  But  this  year  all  looks  well  for  a 
bumper  crop,  and  the  purple  and  silver  of  the  iris 
and  lily  clumps — everywhere  at  present  blossoming 
— fringe  verdant  squares  of  exuberant  promised 
plenty,  where  the  great  dragon-flies  buzz,  and  the 
frogs  croak  all  day  long.  A  run  of  two  hours  brings 
you  past  Kamaknra,  the  region  of  the  old  glories 
of  the  warlike  house — which  ruled  Japan  from 
1192  a.d.  to  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century — 
past  Enoshima,  the  ever-beautiful  "  Isle  of  Dragons," 
to  Kodzu,  where  you  take  a  tramcar,  and  bump 
through  the  town  of  Odawara  to  Yumoto  village, 
whence  the  ascent  to  Mivanoshita  commences.     The 


42o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

ladies  and  the  luggage  ride  up  the  three  miles  of 
hilly  road  in  kuruma  drawn  by  two  men,  ni-nim-biki. 
The  gentlemen,  glad  of  a  little  rural  walk  after  the 
hot  streets  of  Tokio,  breast  the  ascent  on  foot.  We 
reach  Miyanoshita  just  as  the  lights  begin  to  twinkle 
in  the  windows  of  the  two  hotels  which  receive  the 
innumerable  visitors  to  this  green  and  pleasant  glen. 
A  hot  spring,  slightly  mineral,  has  created  Miyano- 
shita, affording  perpetual  and  pleasant  bathing ;  and 
the  air,  whether  it  breathes  from  the  sea  below  or 
from  the  thickly-wooded  hills  above,  is  always  fresh 
and  pleasant. 

To  inhale  that  air,  and  to  bathe  in  the  soft  waters 
heated  for  you  in  the  subterranean  furnaces,  are  the 
main  business  of  life  in  this  hill  village.  The  only 
industry  of  the  place,  apart  from  guides,  tea-houses, 
and  waiting  musumes,  is  the  manufacture  of  all 
kinds  of  small  articles  from  the  wood  of  the  various 
timber  trees  growing  on  the  hills  around.  Some  of 
these  are  of  incredible  ingenuity  in  construction  and 
neatness  of  finish,  making  the  most  elaborate  work 
of  Tunbridge  Wells  utterly  commonplace.  Many 
of  the  woods  employed,  such  as  the  camphor,  the 
ivy,  the  kaki,  kari,  and  sendan,  are  of  great 
beauty,  and  there  seems  to  be  almost  nothing  that 
a  Japan  turner  cannot  produce  from  them.  He 
sells  you,  for  a  few  sen,  a  box  of  ivy  wood  delicately 
grained  and  polished,  containing  a  dozen  lovely 
little  saucers  of  the  same  material  ;  or  a  lunch-box 
which  folds  into  next  to  nothing  until  you  want 
it,  and  then  expands  into  a  complete  and  hand- 
some table  service.     Sellers  of  photographs  are  also 


A  JAPANESE  HEALTH  RESORT.  421 

numerous,  and  softly  importunate,  for  the  Japanese 
have  become  very  skilful  with  the  camera.  When 
you  have  purchased  all  the  photographs  and  wooden 
nicknacks  which  you  desire,  the  next  thing  is  to 
organise  excursions  into  the  wild  and  beautiful 
wilderness  of  mountains  everywhere  surrounding 
you.  These  must  be  performed  either  on  foot  or 
in  chairs  lashed  on  bamboo  poles,  and  carried  upon 
the  shoulders  of  four  of  the  sturdy  hill  men  of  the 
district.  The  paths  are  very  steep  and  narrow,  and 
the  foothold  often  merely  the  loose  stones  of  a 
mountain  stream.  Yet  the  sturdy  Ninsoku  trudge 
along,  up  hill  and  down  dale,  in  their  sandals  of 
rope,  apparently  insensible  to  fatigue,  or  sufficiently 
refreshed  from  time  to  time  by  a  cup  of  pale  tea 
and  a  sugar  biscuit,  and  willingly  accepting  fifty 
sen,  or  about  eighteenpence,  for  a  tremendous  day's 
work.  With  a  thin  blue  calico  coat,  a  blue  hand- 
kerchief tied  round  the  close  cropped  head,  and 
their  small  brass  tobacco  pipes  stuck  in  their  girdles, 
they  chatter  gaily  as  they  trot  along  under  the 
bamboo  poles,  shifting  these  every  now  and  then 
from  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  a  little  harmonious 
murmur  of  "  Go-issho,''  which  means  "  at  the  same 
honourable  time,"  i.  e.  "  all  together,  boys."  Arrived 
at  the  tea-house,  they  patiently  pick  from  their  legs 
the  leeches  which  have  fastened  there  in  the  wet 
and  narrow  forest  paths,  wipe  the  profuse  perspira- 
tion from  their  brown  necks,  smoke  a  pipe  or  two, 
and  slowly  sip  a  cup  of  the  "  honourable  hot  tea," 
and  are  then  ready  to  trudge  on  again  for  another  ri 
under  their  heavy  burdens. 


422  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

Charming  and  instructive  beyond  description  are 
some  of  the  expeditions  which  may  thus  be  under- 
taken from  Miyanoshita  as  a  center,  the  hills  con- 
taining all  sorts  of  natural  wonders,  as  well  as  being 
of  wonderful  beauty  in  regard  of  scenery.  We  made 
two  out  of  many  favourite  explorations  yesterday  and 
the  day  before ;  on  the  first  occasion  to  the  mountain 
lake  of  Hakone,  on  the  second  to  no  less  formidably- 
named  a  spot  than  "  the  Great  Hell  " — O  Jigoku. 
The  general  character  of  the  country  being  the  same, 
I  will  make  one  description  serve  for  the  impressions 
of  the  two  journeys. 

The  Hakone  mountains  are  for  the  most  part 
intensely  green  in  aspect,  "  darkly,  deeply,  beauti- 
fully green  " — of  a  green  to  make  an  artist  despair, 
it  is  so'  magnificently  monotonous,  and  beyond  imita- 
tion by  the  palette.  This  results  jmncipally  from 
the  long  bamboo  grass  everywhere  growing  over 
the  highland  country,  which,  though  it  rises  to  the 
height  of  eight  or  ten  feet,  presents  the  appearance 
of  an  unbroken  verdant  mantle  of  herbage  rolling 
in  light  waves  before  the  wind.  The  trees — chiefly 
beech, .  fir  of  various  kinds,  and  oak — grow  at  one 
time  sparsely,  at  another  in  extensive  groves,  from 
the  jungle  of  the  dwarf  bamboo ;  intermixed  with 
which  are  a  few  inconspicuous  wild  flowers — white 
andromedas  and  spirses,  yellow  lilies,  wild  hy- 
drangea, dog  roses,  and  the  Canterbury  bell.  Little 
or  no  animal  life  is  to  be  seen ;  the  cover  seems 
too  dense  for  four-footed  creatures,  but  on  the  less- 
wooded  mountains  the  fox  and  badger  exist,  and 
there  are  deer,  wild  boar,  and  monkeys  of  a  single 


A  JAPAXESE   HEAL  EH  RESORT. 


423 


species,  to  be  found  not  far  off.  A  lark — almost 
exactly  identical  with  the  English  species — sings 
the  familiar  carol  as  we  pass,  and  an  oriole,  which 
flutes  very  sweetly,  is  seen  and  heard ;  but  the 
general  silence  of  the  mountains  is  remarkable  and 
almost  unbroken,  except  by  the  noise  of  streams 
everywhere  descending.  Some  of  these  smoke  in 
the  cool  hillside  air,  and  discolour  the  stones  with 
sulphurous  or  mineral   deposits,   notably   at  Ko-ji- 


1IAKOXK    LAKE. 


go-ku,  near  to  Ashi-no-yu,  where  some  of  us  en- 
joyed the  luxury  of  hot  sulphur  baths,  and  found 
them  immensely  refreshing  in  the  middle  of  a  long- 
walk.  The  central  spot,  however,  for  witnessing 
this  kind  of  phenomenon  is  at  the  "Great  Hell" 
itself,  near  to  the  pass  of  ()  Tomi  Toge,  from  which 
a   glorious  view  is  obtained  of  the  ever  wonderful 


424  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

Fuji-San.  There  was  nothing  to  indicate  that  we 
were  approaching  a  spot  to  justify  the  name  given 
to  this  place,  except  the  sudden  appearance  of  many 
large  dead  trees,  which  had  been  killed  by  the  fatal 
breath  emanating  from  the  solfataras  near.  The 
hillside  at  large  spreads  on  either  hand  as  fair  and 
green  as  before,  with  waving  bamboo  grass  and 
silvery  flowers  of  the  deutzia,  and  white  bells  of 
the  Japan  anemone.  The  earliest  intimation  was 
by  the  nostrils,  which  become  abruptly  aware  of 
odours  distinctly  infernal ;  and  on  reaching  a  solitary 
farmhouse  you  come  in  sight  of  a  torrent,  running 
over  black  and  speckled  rocks,  on  a  bed  yellow  as 
the  rind  of  an  orange.  The  ladies  must  now  leave 
their  chairs  and  toil  by  a  steep  ascent  round  a 
shoulder  of  the  valley,  from  which  issues  this 
Japanese  Styx  ;  and  by  a  perilous  and  broken  path, 
winding  now  through  the  thickets,  now  along  the 
brink  of  a  crumbling  precipice,  we  come  suddenly 
in  sight  of  a  gully,  destitute  of  every  shred  of 
vegetation,  and  hideous  with  all  the  Cocytian  colours 
associated  with  flame  and  smoke,  death  and  desola- 
tion, ruin  and  ravage.  It  is  a  corner  of  the  world 
abandoned  to  despair — a  mountain  heart  on  fire — 
which  one  beholds ;  a  nook  of  nature  whence  every- 
thing lovely  and  living  has  been  banished  to  give 
vent  to  the  secret  forces  of  the  under  world.  The 
earth  all  around  is  poisoned  and  parti-coloured  with 
livid  blotches  and  gangrenes ;  the  rocks  are  crusted 
with  a  leprous  tetter ;  pimples  and  ulcers  of  purple 
and  black  and  yellow  break  out  from  the  level 
spaces.      Some     of    these     are   alive    with    an    evil 


A  JAPANESE   HEALTH  RESORT.  425 

activity,  and  hiss  and  fume  and  bubble,  emitting 
jets  of  fat  yellow  and  green  smoke,  with  now  and 
then  a  crackling  noise  when  the  crust  sinks  in,  to 
open  by-and-by  at  another  black  and  yellow  gash 
in  the  diseased  ground.  It  is  not  safe  even  to 
stand  near  the  melancholy  amphitheatre  where  reek 
these  caldrons  of  Acheron.  To  pass  along  the  black 
edge  of  the  stream  itself  and  into  this  ghastly  corry 
would  be  rash  in  the  extreme,  for  no  one  knows 
where  the  surface  may  not  yield,  and  suddenly 
plunge  the  foot  or  limb  into  a  bath  of  boiling 
sulphur.  A  lady  of  our  acquaintance  was  severely 
burned  here  some  time  ago,  and  a  Russian  officer 
lost  his  life  in  the  treacherous  morass  of  flame. 

I  am  requested  by  an  amiable  and  charming  young 
lady  of  our  party  to  inscribe  upon  her  bamboo  staff 
the  Japanese  name  of  the  place — which  she  will 
certainly  never  visit  again — together  with  some  suit- 
able record.  Sitting  out  of  reach  of  the  winds  from 
Hades,  under  a  great  cryptomeria,  blasted  by  its 
neighbourhood,  I  carve  on  the  Japanese  alpenstock 
a  verse  which  she  means  to  preserve  : — 

"  Staff,  which  to  O  Jigoku  went, 
Good  news  to  Sinners  tell; 
Demons  may  climb  to  Paradise, 
Now  Angels  walk  to  Hell." 

And  yet,  just  over  the  ridge,  spreads  a  scene  as 
beautiful  as  that  just  quitted  is  forbidding.  On  the 
slopes  of  the  O  Tomi  Pass  box-trees  and  the  milky- 
blossomed  asemi,  with  the  pines  and  bamboos,  the 
azaleas  and  lilies,  make  the  mountain  fair  and  ulad 


426  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

again;  and  Fuji-San  is  seen  towering  up  in  perfect 
beauty  at  the  end  of  a  vast  valley.  The  snow  is 
almost  all  gone  from  the  Lady  of  Mountains.  Just 
here  and  there  are  visible,  if  I  might  quote  my  own 
new  poem,  the  "  Light  of  the  World  "  : — 

"  Dark  hollows  where  sad  winter  hides  away 
From  summer,  with  the  snows  still  in  her  lap." 

By  another  path  the  matchless  mount  may  be  seen 
looking  down  upon  the  deep  waters  of  Hakone — a 
great  lake  of  unknown  depth,  and  perpetual  coldness, 
lying  two  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  Hakone 
Lake  has  for  its  Japanesee  name  Yoshi-no-Midzu- 
Umiy  or  the  "  water  of  the  reeds,"  and  is  a  very 
beautiful  highland  sea,  the  abode,  it  is  said,  of 
supernatural  beings,  till  a  Buddhist  priest  penetrated 
these  recesses  and  gave  to  the  world  knowledge  and 
possession  of  lovely  and  cool  Hakone.  We  drink 
to  the  pious  memory  of  Mangwan  Shonin  as  we  sit 
in  the  upper  gallery  of  the  tea-house  looking  over 
the  rolling  blue  wavelets  of  the  lake.  Close  by 
Japanese  woodmen  are  cutting  fir  trees  into  thin 
boards,  to  make  ori,  the  boxes  in  which  sweetmeats 
and  cakes  are  presented.  We  return  in  drenching 
rain,  but  well  rewarded  for  this  and  for  all  our 
exertions  by  the  splendid  scenery  and  the  countless 
objects  of  interest  on  the  road.  Perhaps  it  would 
not  have  rained  if  we  had  remembered  to  put  some 
stones  in  the  lap  of  the  great  rock  image  of  Jizo? 
whom  we  j>assed  in  accomplishing  the  ascent.  He 
is  the  god  of  travellers  and  the  protector  of  children, 
and  the  correct  thing  is  to  pay  him  the  little  atten- 


A  JAPANESE   HEALTH  RESORT.  427 

tion  alluded  to.  As  we  wend  homewards  through 
the  picturesque  village  of  Kiga,  we  stop  to  look 
again  at  the  wonderful  fish  in  the  gardens  of  a  tea- 
house  near  at  hand.  Swimming  about  in  a  pool  undera 
little  waterfall  there  are  exhibited  some  hundreds  of 
variegated  carp — the  Japanese  Koi — which  are  of 
every  imaginable  brilliancy  of  colour — purple,  russet, 
citron,  saffron,  orange,  rose-red,  gold,  and  silver. 
Thev  are  tamer  than  any  pigeons,  and  come  vora- 
ciously  to  the  bank  to  be  fed,  scrambling  for  slices 
of  bean-cake,  and  putting  their  gold  and  brown 
noses  high  out  of  the  water  in  their  struggles  to 
secure  the  morsel.  When  a  piece  of  cake  falls  on 
the  dry  rock,  near  the  water,  they  try  to  throw 
themselves  on  shore,  and  even  use  their  fins  for 
legs  in  their  eagerness  to  obtain  the  prize.  The 
fish  in  the  opening  story  of  the  "  Arabian  Nights," 
who  were  coloured  blue,  yellow,  white,  and  red,  and 
who  talked  in  the  frying-pan,  could  not  have  been 
more  marvellous  in  hue,  and  certainly  not  more 
intelligent. 

MiYA-xo-siiiTA,  Japan,  July  1,  1890. 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

THE  DAY  OF  THE  DEAD  IN  JAPAN. 

To-day  and  to-morrow  we  celebrate  in  Tokio, 
and  all  over  Dai  Nippon,  the  Bon  Matsuri,  or 
"  Festival  of  the  Dead."  It  is  the  Japanese  Jour 
des  3Iorts,  and  for  many  evenings  past  the  Ginza 
and  other  principal  streets  have  been  filled  with 
little  stalls  planted  on  the  side  of  the  pavement, 
where  they  sell  the  articles  most  in  vogue  for  the 
due  observance  of  this  national  occasion.  The 
leading  idea  is  that  the  Dead — or  a  vast  number 
of  them — come  back  to  this  life  during  the  forty- 
eight  hours  about  to  elajose.  And,  truly,  it  is  just 
the  season  when,  if  you  had  lived  your  life  in 
Japan,  you  would  like  to  return  and  see  the  fair 
and  quiet  country  once  again.  Summer  has  come 
upon  us  in  all  its  golden  glory ;  the  land  is  bathed 
day  after  day,  and  from  dawn  until  dusk,  in  a 
flood  of  brilliant  sunshine,  which  is  melting  the 
last  streaks  of  snow  from  the  brow  of  Fuji-San, 
and  making  the  trees  and  the  crops  burst  into  such 
vividness  of  growth  that  the  islands  are  one  green 
garden.  Out  of  doors  work  is  half  suspended, 
or    conducted    only    by    kuruma-men   and    coolies, 

stripped  to   the    skin.     In    the   bazaars,  the   shops 

428 


THE  DAY  OF  THE  DEAD  IX JAPAN.         429 

which  attract  most  custom  are  those  where  they 
sell  kuri-mizu,  tumblers  of  ice  ground  into  flakes 
upon  a  steel  plane.  None  but  the  lightest  garments 
are  worn  by  the  most  prudish  and  particular,  the 
children  go  frankly  bare,  and  in  the  house  a  kimono 
of  figured-cotton  or  gauze,  drawn  round  the  loins 
with  a  wisp  of  gay  silk,  is  about  all  which  the 
Japanese  dames  and  damsels  put  on.  Shqji  and 
amado  being  taken  down,  every  house  is  as  open 
as  a  box,  with  only  a  bottom  and  a  top ;  and  the 
breeze,  if  there  be  any,  plays  freely  and  welcomely 
through  back  and  front.  The  crows  seem  to  gasp 
at  noon  in  the  hot  air,  in  which  large  and  splendid 
butterflies  and  blue-bodied  dragon-flies  disport  by 
myriads,  while  for  flowers  we  have  all  sorts  of  lilies, 
some  late  irises,  phlox,  pomegranate,  and  the  open- 
ing blossoms  of  the  lotus,  which  is  grown  everywhere 
for  food  as  well  as  beauty.  Persons  of  leisure  are 
mostly  gone  into  the  hills,  where  it  is  cool — to  Ikao, 
Nikko,  Miyanoshita,  Hakone,  and  such  like  places 
of  refuge  ;  all  the  more  hastily  because  the  cholera 
is  very  severely  epidemic  at  Nagasaki,  and  is  pretty 
sure  to  come  here  sooner  or  later.  But  we  like 
Tokio,  and  have  grown  attached  to  the  life  of  our 
quarter  ;  and,  not  being  afraid  either  of  the  heat  or 
the  cholera,  are  waiting  for  the  last  white  patch  of 
snow  to  disappear  from  the  summit  of  Fuji-San, 
when  we  hope  to  be  among  the  first  of  the  pilgrims 
who  will  ascend  her  stately  sides,  and  get  our  clothes 
stamped  with  the  coveted  mark  of  those  who  have 
touched  the  crown  of  the  Queen  of  Mountains. 

At  such  a  time,  I  say,  it  is  very  natural  that  de- 


43o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

ceased  persons  of  taste  and  patriotism  should  desire 
to  revisit  Japan,  especially  since  being  disembodied, 
it  is  indifferent  to  them  that  the  themometer  stands 
at  94°  Fahrenheit.  The  common  opinion  conse- 
crated by  ages  of  simple  faith,  is  that  they  do  return 
at  this  season  in  every  year,  and  must  be  received 
and  entertained  with  becoming  empressement.  For 
this  cause  the  little  stalls  have  swarmed  along  the 
side-walks,  loaded  with  thin  canes  of  the  bamboo 
and  osier,  bundles  of  flowers  and  leaves,  bunches  of 
refuse  hemp,  cucumbers,  egg-plant  fruit,  and  lanterns 
of  square  shape,  white  and  colored.  All  these — 
which  the  j>eople  buy  by  myriads — are  symbolical  in 
the  approaching  solemnities — if  anything  can  be 
called  solemn  connected  with  religion  in  Japan. 
The  attitude  of  this  people  towards  the  supernatural 
has  been  described  as  a  mixture  of  "  fear  and  fun  " — 
I  should  rather  call  it  one  of  "  politeness  towards 
possibilities."  When  I  asked  a  very  intelligent 
Japanese  lady,  who  was  investing  in  articles  for 
the  Bon  Matsuri,  whether  she  really  believed  in 
Emma  San,  the  Judge  of  men  in  Hades,  and  in 
the  return  of  departed  spirits  to  their  houses,  she 
said,  "  You  have  told  me  before  that  Emma  San 
is  only  the  Indian  Yama,  the  Regent  of  the  Dead, 
introduced  into  Japan ;  and  as  for  the  departed, 
who  are  still  so  dear  to  us,  I  believe  they  come 
back  kokoro  no  naka  ni  (into  the  middle  of  our 
hearts),  but  not  talcu  no  naka  ni  (into  the  midst  of 
our  houses).  Yet  it  is  right  to  do  what  all  the  neigh- 
bors do,  and  to  be  kind  to  the  dead*  if  they  should 
come ;  therefore  I    shall  light  ray  lanterns  and  go 


THE    DAY  OF   THE    DEAD  IX  JAP  AX.      431 

to  say  my  prayers  at  Shiba."  Undoubtedly  the 
common  folk  have  a  sincere  belief  in  the  old  fables, 
and  quite  think  that  Shodzaka  no  Baba,  the  hag 
of  hell,  waits  on  the  brink  of  the  Japanese  Styx  to 
strip  newly-arrived  souls  of  their  earthly  coverings. 
So,  as  a  matter  of  faith,  or  of  habit,  everybody  takes 
part  in  the  Bon  JIatsuri,  and  is  now  engaged  in 
lighting    up  the    cemeteries,   and    putting   white   or 


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-&jr<m%*'*   ■        '    ■■■•  ^i>c  -=^-  <s^* 


(.HAVE   OF    KO-MURASAKI. 


coloured  lanterns  in  the  doorways  or  mado  of  the 
houses.  The  white  lanterns  arc  to  guide  home  souls 
of  friends  recently  deceased;  the  coloured  lanterns 
are  for  the  assistance  of  spirits  less  newly  departed. 
The  common  idea  is  that  the  disembodied  anima  has 
to  make  a  journey  of  3,600,000,000  ri  to  the  other 
world,  and  as  a  ri  equals  2i  miles,  this  is  a  very 


432  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

considerable  distance  to  travel.  Accordingly,  on 
arrival,  the  souls  shall  find  bunches  of  tow  burning 
and  lights  kindled  at  their  well-known  door,  and 
little  trays  of  egg-plant  fruit  and  rice  and  cucumber 
within,  and  their  tombstones  also  illuminated,  in 
case  they  wish  to  see  whether  the  tobd  were  all 
duly  placed,  and  the  headstone  set  up  lovingly  and 
faithfully  with  their  Kaimio  name  upon  it,  for  it 
is  the  custom  here  to  give  the  dead  a  new  title, 
0  Kurina — generally  very  poetical  and  compli- 
mentary. By  the  seaside,  as  at  Nagasaki — where 
now,  alas  !  people  are  dying  fifty  a  day  of  cholera — 
they  build  little  boats  of  the  canes  and  reeds,  and 
launch  them  loaded  with  rice,  egg-fruit,  and  cucum- 
ber, and  the  souls  embark,  on  their  return  journey, 
upon  these.  Here  we  do  it  on  the  Sumida  river, 
and  when  the  little  lamp  goes  out,  by  wind  or 
immersion,  the  Sayonara  is  pronounced,  and  the 
friendly  spirit  has  reached  its  destination.  The 
canes  of  hemp  employed  are  termed  ogara,  the 
kindly  dismissal  of  the  shadowy  visitors  okuri- 
dashi,  the  fires  lighted  at  the  door  mukaibi. 

If  it  were  true,  it  would  be  an  interesting  anni- 
versary— indeed,  an  English  poet  has  written  some 
lines  which  suit  well  the  Bon  Matsuri  : — 

"  I  heard  the  dogs  bark  in  the  midst  of  the  Night, 
And  Avent  to  the  window  to  see  the  sight ; 
All  the  Dead  that  ever  I  knew 
Coming,  one  by  one  and  two  by  two." 

I  do  not  gather  that  the  Japanese  common  people 
have  the  least  fear  of  their  revenants.     Rather  the 


THE   DAY  OF   THE    DEAD  IN  JAPAN.      433 

contrary !  The  grace  of  their  life  extends  to  the 
unknown  and  unknowable,  and  their  fancies  on  this 
head  are  all  pretty  and  tender.  If  one  of  the  great 
black-and-crimson  or  green-and-silver  butterflies 
comes  into  a  house  to-day,  sugar  is  set  for  it — "  it  is 
certainly  the  soul  of  qjisan  or  obdsan,  of  grandpapa 
or  grandmamma  !"  The  Chinese  have  the  same  idea 
and  the  same  festival,  and  both  came,  probably,  from 
India,  where  the  Sraddha — the  celebration  of  the 
Death-day — is  a  most  established  ceremony.  In  the 
Sanskrit  Mahdbhdrata  occurs  a  splendid  passage, 
where,  after  the  great  battle,  all  the  slain  warriors 
come  up  out  of  the  river  and  hold  a  night-long  feast 
with  the  victors  and  survivors,  departing  again  when 
the  "  wolfs-tail"  comes  into  the  sky  and  the  jungle- 
cocks  crow.  The  soft  and  pleasant  temper  of  Japan 
has  given  graces  to  the  old  superstitions.  They 
worship  and  celebrate,  but  seem  to  say  and  think 
with  Shelly  • — 

"  It  is  a  pleasant  creed,  and  yet 
Modest  if  one  considers  it; 
To  think  that  Death  itself  must  be, 
Like  all  things  else,  a  mockery." 

Mv  charming  neighbour  the  daughter  of  our  land- 
lord,  O  Fuku  San — "  the  Honourable  Miss  Good 
Fortune" — has  just  called  in  to  give  me  fresh  and 
more  accurate  particulars  about  the  Jour  des 
Morts.  She  says  parents  and  and  ancestors  are  wor- 
shipped during  three  days,  at  this  time.  Shrines  of 
Buddha  are  carefully  cleansed,  and  all  things  apper- 
taining to  them  put  in  order.     The  little  red  earthen- 


434  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

ware  pans,  everywhere  sold  and  bought,  are  to  hold 
the  oil  and  wick  for  the  Death  lamps.  The  bundles 
of  grass  are  styled  kusaichi.  The  15th  (that  is  to-day) 
bears  the  title  of  Chugen,  the  day  of  good  and 
blessing.  No  fish  is  eaten  now,  and  ogara,  the 
stripped  hemp-stalks,  and  hemp  refuse,  will  again 
be  burned  to-night.  The  16th  (to-morrow)  is  called 
Sai-nichi.  Servants  and  apprentices  get  leave  of 
absence  and  gifts  of  money,  and  put  on  new  dresses 
to  visit  friends  and  parents,  which  is  termed  Yadori. 
On  that  last  day  of  the  "  Feast  of  Lanterns,"  for 
such  it  may  be  called,  offerings  are  made  to  Emma- 
San,  the  dread  Deity  of  the  Under-world,  and  prayers 
uttered  for  the  dead  and  living. 

Azabu,  July,  15,  1890. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

A    JAPANESE    LOVE-STORY. 

A  love-story  will  outlive  the  memory  of  long  wars 
and  great  princes.  There  exists  a  proof  of  this 
in  a  little  village,  which  I  recently  visited,  not  far 
from  Tokio.  The  village  is  named  Megnro,  and  lies 
about  three  miles  from  the  capital  (rather  over  a  ri), 
amid  bamboo  groves  and  clumps  of  wild  camellias, 
on  the  banks  of  a  stream  called  the  Furu  Kawa, 
which  runs  into  the  Sumida.  Here  lie  buried,  near 
the  temple  of  Fudo-Sama,  Shirai  Gompachi  and 
Ko-Murasaki,  his  beautiful  mistress.  And  although 
it  is  230  years  since  these  lovers  were  laid  there 
together  under  the  bamboos,  their  memory  remains 
still  as  green  as  the  leaves  that  nutter  above  them. 
Everybody,  hereabouts,  knows  their  story  ;  every  one 
can  relate  it  to  you  with  the  minutest  particulars ; 
every  one,  sooner  or  later,  repairs  to  their  grave  to 
burn  a  stick  of  incense  there,  and  afterwards  to  sit 
in  the  tea-house  by  the  pool  of  white  lotus  and  feed 
the  tame  carp  with  pink  and  green  biscuits,  while 
meditating,  each  in  his  own  way,  upou  what 
Shakespeare  says : — 

"  Golden  boys  and  girls  all  must 
Consign  to  this,  and  come  to  dust." 


436  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

Since,  moreover,  the  tale  illustrates  bygone  Japanese 
manners,  and  the  place  itself  is  pretty  enough  to 
deserve  description,  I  will  briefly  recount  the  more 
or  less  moving  narrative  of  the  loves  of  Gompachi 
and  Ko-Murasaki,  the  meaning  of  this  name  being 
"  Little  Wild  Indigo." 

My  Japanese  friends  and  I  took  the  wrong  road 
with  our  kurumas,  and,  thanks  to  this  happy  mis- 
take, meandered  on  wheels  for  half  the  sunny  after- 
noon through  a  country  wonderfully  rustic,  consider- 
ing that  Tokio  was  so  near  at  hand.  The  rice-fields 
stretched  out  on  all  sides,  bright  with  the  young 
crop,  over  which  were  flitting  great  dragon-flies, 
blue  and  bronze,  and  butterflies  as  big  as  bats,  with 
black  velvet  and  crimson,  or  brown  and  amber,  or 
saffron  and  scarlet  wings.  On  the  drier  ground, 
interminable  rows  of  the  egg-plant,  nasubi,  hung 
heavy  with  the  black-purple  fruit,  now  everywhere 
in  use  as  a  vegetable ;  and  clumps  of  hydrangea, 
with  pale  blue  clustering  blossoms,  grew  beside 
the  little  huts  of  wood,  paper,  and  thatch,  where 
the  Jaj)anese  babies,  glad  of  the  summer  heat, 
j)layed  stark  naked,  while  their  "sisters,  cousins, 
and  aunts,"  in  clothing  almost  as  simple,  did  the 
small  daily  duties  of  the  homestead.  Every  now 
and  then,  at  the  foot  of  a  wooded  slope,  you  would 
see  the  red  torii  of  a  shrine  raised  to  Inari-Sama, 
the  deity  of  farming,  who  has  the  fox  for  his  badge, 
and  gives  or  withholds  bumper  crops.  On  the 
banks  and  fences  not  many  wild  flowers  are  observed 
blooming,  but  you  do  notice  two  or  three  lilies — 
among  them  a  Crown  Imperial — late  irises,  a  small 


A  JAPANESE   LOVE   STORY.  437 

white  umbellifer,  like  our  meadow-sweet,  and  the 
pretty  sprays  of  the  lithospermum,  after  which  "  Little 
Wild  Indigo  "  was  named.  You  would  very  much 
miss  the  birds,  which  render  an  English  country 
lane  so  vocal.  The  Japanese  woods  sadly  lack 
feathered  musicians,  but  in  the  open  districts  our 
own  lark,  hibari,  may  be  heard,  and  there  is  a  little 
songster,  the  Cettria  cantans,  which  is  called — by 
what  I  must  think  is  an  extravagant  compliment — 
"  the  nightingale  of  Nippon."  Presently  we  plunge 
into  a  bamboo  thicket,  where  the  long  green  canes 
and  arrow-headed  foliage  make  the  road  by  their 
flickering  shadows  a  mosaic  of  black  and  gold  ;  and 
so  we  come  into  the  right  path,  at  the  entrance  of 
the  village  of  Meguro,  where  stands  an  old  Shinto 
fane  surrounded  by  tall,  dark,  cryptomeria  trees. 
This  is  a  favourite  place  with  jealous  women  who 
wish  to  turn  the  hearts  of  indifferent  lovers.  The 
Japanese  day  is  divided  into  twelve  periods,  named 
after  the  rat,  ox,  tiger,  and  hare;  the  dragon,  horse, 
snake,  and  ram  ;  and  the  ape,  cock,  hog,  and  fox. 
In  the  watch  of  the  ox — ushi-no-toki — that  is  to  say, 
about  three  in  the  morning,  the  wronged  damsel 
goes,  in  a  white  kimono,  with  a  candle  lighted  in  a 
fillet  on  her  hand  and  with  a  mirror  bound  round 
her  neck,  carrying  a  little  straw  figure  representing 
her  wayward  lover,  which  she  nails  to  one  of  the 
great  trees,  praying  to  the  genius  of  the  place  to 
turn  his  unkind  heart  or  punish  him  with  sickness. 
Further  on,  another  little  temple  is  seen  in  a  grove 
— that  of  Yaku-Shi  ;  and  as  the  image  here  came  to 
shore  riding  on  a  cuttle-fish,  nobody  who  resorts  to 


438  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

it  is  allowed  to  use  the  Ika  for  food.  It  must  be 
observed,  however,  that  to  abstain  from  cuttle-fish 
would  not  be  considered  any  severe  hardship  by 
those  Europeans  who  have  tried  to  eat  it. 

Now  we  turn  between  the  two  tea-houses,  where  the 
musumes,  in  hospitable  chorus,  beseech  us  to  enter  as 
soon  as  we  have  made  our  "  honourable  supplications," 
and  the  jinrikisha  roll  into  the  paved  court  of  the 
celebrated  temple  of  Fudo-Sama.  At  the  bottom  of 
the  stone  stairway,  leading  to  the  chief  shrine,  are 
to  be  seen  chapels,  in  the  Japanese  style,  containing 
effiges  of  Em-ma,  the  judge  of  the  wicked,  who  is 
really  the  Indian  god  Yama,  regent  of  the  dead, 
imported  with  Buddhism  ;  and  of  Shodzuka-No-Baba, 
the  old  hag  who  waits  on  the  banks  of  the  river 
dividing  this  world  from  the  next,  and  strips  little 
children  of  their  earthly  clothing  there,  setting  them 
afterwards  to  pick  up  stones  if  their  friends  in  this 
life  have  not  previously  filled  the  lap  of  Jizo  with 
pebbles  to  propitiate  her.  At  the  left  of  the  steps 
sparkles  a  pool  of  clear  water,  fed  by  a  small  water- 
fall, flowing  through  the  mouth  of  a  brass  dragon. 
When  we  approached  a  penitent  sinner  was  stand- 
ing under  this  heavy  jet  of  water,  receiving  it  on  his 
head,  and  praying  hard  all  the  time  with  clasped 
palms.  This  is  called  the  Sui-  Giyo,  or  "  water-cure  " 
for  sin,  and  is  considered  highly  efficacious,  as  well 
as  rather  pleasant  in  summer.  Another  penitent 
was  doing  the  Hiyakudo,  or  "  hundred-turn  walk," 
passing  backwards  and  forwards  between  two  points, 
and  repeating  a  prayer  at  each  run,  the  tally  of 
which  he    kept    by  depositing  on  a  stone  at  every 


A  JAPJXESE   LOVE   STORY.  439 

round  a  twisted  straw.  If  you  do  not  feel  wicked 
or  warm  enough  to  go  through  either  of  these  lustral 
performances,  you  can  get  quit  of  quite  a  number  of 
piccadillos  by  buying  outside  the  temple  some  small 
birds,  fish,  or  tortoises,  and  setting  them  free  into 
the  woods  or  the  water,  in  honour  of  the  compassion 
of  the  Lord  Buddha.  We  mount  the  stone  steps 
and  reach  the  shrine,  painted  bright  red  and  roofed 
with  copper,  containing  some  very  curious  images 
and  treasures,  and  among  them  a  particularly  strange 
bronze  figure  of  a  dragon  coiled  round  a  sword, 
supposed  to  symbolise  the  two  principles  of  life. 
In  front  of  the  altar  are  suspended  gongs,  which  you 
sound  by  banging  them  with  a  twisted  red  and 
white  rope.  I  take  off  my  hat  while  my  companions 
vigorously  invoke  the  Deity,  repeat  their  light- 
hearted  prayers,  and  afterwards  clap  their  little  hands 
together,  to  let  heaven  know  that  its  attention  is 
no  longer  requested  for  the  present. 

Then  we  descend  the  steps,  call  at  one  of  the  tea- 
houses for  the  key  to  the  lovers'  grave,  and,  guided 
by  two  or  three  laughing  musum'es,  find  our  way 
to  a  door  in  a  wooden  fence  leading  into  an  old 
burying-ground.  Here,  under  a  tiny  pent-house 
of  weather-worn  boards  *  are  two  moss-covered  stones, 
projecting  from  the  damp  earth,  with  two  little 
cisterns  of  stone  in  front  of  them,  one  containing 
rain-water  and  the  other  sand  and  ashes.  The 
musum'es  have  brought  with  them  a  bundle  of  senko, 
which  we  stick  up  in  the  sand  and  light.  The  fra- 
grant blue  smoke  of  the  incense  curls    among    the 

*  Vid.  |>;i2fe  433. 


44Q  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

bamboo  stems  and  leaves,  and  diffuses  agreeable 
wafts,  while  somebody  reads  to  us  what  is  written 
on  the  stones,  and  on  the  sotoba,  or  wooden  tablets 
planted  in  the  ground  round  the  grave.  "  This  is 
the  tomb  of  the  Shiyoku,"  it  says.  The  Shiyoku 
were  fabulous  birds,  which  always  flew  with  their 
near  wings  joined  together,  and  became  the  emblem 
of  love  and  fidelity.  Another  stone  says  :  "  In  the 
old  days  his  beauty  was  like  that  of  the  cherry 
flower,  and  she  looked  upon  it  with  a  love  like 
that  of  the  sunshine.  These  two  birds  have  died 
in  their  too-short  flight ;  the  cherry  blossoms  have 
perished  without  fruit !  " 

The  story  is  admirably,  though  briefly  recounted 
in  "  Mitford's  Tales  of  Old  Japan."  But  I  received 
some  curious  additions  from  my  companions,  and 
from  the  local  guardians  of  the  spot.  Shirai 
Gompachi  was  a  young  Japanese  gentleman,  a  two- 
sworded  Samurai,  in  the  train  of  a  Daimio  of  Inaba, 
who,  by  the  age  of  eighteen,  had  become  widely 
known  in  his  own  province  for  great  personal  beauty 
and  courage,  and  perfect  skill  in  the  use  of  the 
sword.  Those  were  the  days  when  the  sword  was 
the  "  life  and  soul  of  the  Samurai."  The  sword- 
makers  were  honoured  beyond  all  craftsmen  ;  they 
forged  their  blades  amid  solemn  ceremonies ;  and, 
to  mount  and  ornament  them,  the  best  workmen 
lavished  all  that  art  could  command.  Noblemen 
would  give  a  whole  estate  to  buy  a  famous  weapon, 
the  edge  of  which  should  be  so  keen  that  a  lotus- 
stalk  descending  a  stream  against  it  would  be  cut 
in  twain,  while  it  would  not  turn  or  notch  if  vou 


A  JAPANESE   LOVE   STORY.  441 

clove  an  iron  spear-handle  with  it.  The  etiquette 
of  the  sword  governed  all  Japanese  society.  Once 
drawn,  it  must  never  be  sheathed  until  reddened 
by  blood,  and  must  never  be  unsheathed  in  the 
precincts  of  the  palace.  Young  Gompachi,  on  a 
certain  unlucky  day,  quarrelled  with  a  companion, 
and  drawing  his  sword  upon  him  in  the  court, 
fought  with  and  killed  him.  For  this  he  had  to 
fly  to  Yeddo,  then  but  a  small  city,  and  to  hide  in 
its  suburbs.  It  was  a  wild  time  everywhere,  and  he 
put  up  one  night  in  an  inn  where  a  gang  of  robbers 
lived,  some  six  or  seven,  who  could  not  see  his 
richly-ornamented  sword  and  dirk  without  coveting 
them,  and  also  concluding  that  the  owner  must 
have  plenty  of  gold  coins  in  his  girdle.  As  little 
could  the  musume  of  the  house,  a  singularly  lovely 
girl,  wait  upon  the  handsome  young  stranger  with- 
out interest.  In  the  dead  of  the  night,  Gompachi 
was  sleeping  soundly  after  his  long  flight,  when  he 
was  lightly  touched  by  some  hand,  and,  starting  up, 
saw  the  musume  kneeling  by  the  side  of  his  futon. 
He  had  not  noticed  before  how  beautiful  she  was, 
this  damsel  of  fifteen  years,  which  in  Japan  is 
maturity.  "  Damatte  !  do  not  speak,"  she  said,  "  I 
crave  your  honourable  pardon  for  arousing  you  ;  but 
you  must  know  this  is  a  den  of  dreadful  robbers 
who  last  year  carried  me  off  from  my  father's  house 
in  Mikawa,  under  the  hill  of  Azabu.  To-night  they 
will  murder  you  to  get  your  sword,  and  clothes,  and 
money.  You  seem  to  be  as  brave  as  you  are  hand- 
some. If  you  are  really  skilful  with  the  sword, 
prepare  yourself,  and  I  will  try  to  help  you ;  and 


442  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

if  you  can  get  away  safely  take  me  with  you,  for 
I  love  you,  and  am  risking  my  life  to  tell  you  all 
this."  Gompachi  answered,  "  Greatly  I  thank  you, 
O  Ko-Murasaki  San  !  but  I  will  not  have  you  hazard 
one  hair  of  your  beautiful  head  for  my  sake.  Steal 
out  of  the  house  and  wait  in  the  shadow  of  the 
bamboos  for  me.  As  soon  as  I  have  tied  up  my 
sleeves  and  fastened  back  my  hair,  I  will  come  to 
you,  and  if  any   seek  to  stay  me  I  will   kill   them." 

Accordingly  she  went  out,  and  while  Gompachi 
was  putting  on  his  day  dress  the  thieves  stealthily 
entered  by  another  door,  with  drawn  swords,  but 
were  disconcerted  to  find  the  young  Samurai  leap 
upon  them,  his  long  sword  in  one  hand,  and  in  the 
other  the  Ai-Kuchi,  the  dirk,  to  guard  and  to 
despatch.  Two  of  the  knaves  he  instantly  cut  down, 
slashed  the  arm  from  another,  and  from  another  the 
leg,  so  that  the  survivors,  being  terrified,  made  way 
for  him,  and  then,  calmly  wiping  his  Katana  with 
white  jmper  before  sheathing  it,  he  came  to  where 
"  Little  Wild  Indigo  "  waited  trembling  for  him  in 
the  bamboos.  Reassuring  her,  he  conducted  her 
to  Mikawa,  to  her  father's  house,  where  they  over- 
whelmed him  with  thanks,  and  would  have  kept 
him  as  a  son  of  the  establishment,  but  that  he  said 
a  Samurai  must  live  by  his  sword,  and  so  he  would 
go  to  take  service  with  some  lord.  He  promised, 
however,  to  the  weeping  girl  that  he  would  soon 
return  ;  and  receiving  as  a  friendly  present  two 
hundred  ounces  of  silver,  he  started  forth  again  on 
his  wanderings. 

He  had  been  absent  about  a  year,  experiencing 


A  JAPANESE    LOVE   STORY.  443 

all  sorts  of  adventures,  till  lie  fell  into  the  society 
of  a  wardsman  of  Jeddo,  named  Chobei,  who 
helped  him  to  lead,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  the  usual 
reckless  life  of  his  time  and  age.  In  those  days 
letters  were  seldom  written,  news  was  scant,  and  he 
neither  heard  nor,  it  seems,  tried  very  much  to  hear 
from  Ko-Murasaki.  But  one  night  at  dinner  talk 
arose  at  Chobei's  house  of  a  very  beautiful  Geisha 
who  was  newly  come  to  the  Yoshiwara,  and  whose 
dancing  and  singing  made  the  sign  of  the  "  Three 
Sea  Coasts,"  where  she  was  an  inmate,  famous. 
Gompachi  repaired  to  the  "  Three  Sea  Coasts,"  and 
saw  there  sitting  among  the  immoral  sisterhood 
his  Ko-Murasaki,  the  "  Little  Wild  Indigo "  of 
Mikawa.  In  deep  distress  she  told  him  that 
overwhelming  calamity  had  fallen  upon  her  house- 
hold ;  that  her  parents  became  poverty  stricken, 
and  in  danger  of  starvation ;  that  not  hearing  from 
him,  or  seeing  him,  or  meeting  him,  she  had  been 
obliged  to  submit  to  the  fate  of  many  and  many  a 
Japanese  maiden,  and  sell  herself,  for  the  sake  of 
her  father  and  mother,  to  the  Master  of  the  Yoshi- 
wara. "  But  now,"  she  said,  "  that  I  have  seen 
you  once  more,  you,  who  are  so  strong  and  brave,  will 
help  me  ;  do  not  desert  me  again."  The  beauty  of 
the  girl  filled  his  heart  full  as  before,  and  he  gave 
up  everything  to  visit  her  daily.  But  at  the  Yoshi- 
wara money  must  be  spent,  and  being  a  Ronin, 
without  any  means,  Gompachi  soon  came  to  the 
bottom  of  his  wits  and  his  purse,  and  was  driven 
at  last  to  crime,  by  love  and  poverty  combined. 
For  Ko-Murasaki's  sake — though    she    herself   did 


444  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

not  know  it — he  betook  himself  to  robbery  and 
murder.  His  heart  grew  blacker  and  -blacker  by 
these  concealed  wickednesses.  Just  as  he  had 
amassed,  however,  gold  enough  by  his  robberies  to 
buy  Ko-Murasaki's  liberty,  the  authorities,  who 
were  aware  of  his  deeds,  laid  hands  upon  him.  He 
was  proved  guilty  of  murder  and  plunder,  and  be- 
headed on  the  execution  ground.  Chobei,  the 
wardsman,  claimed  his  body  and  head,  and  buried 
them  in  the  grounds  of  the  rural  Temple,  at 
Meguro,  and  Ko-Murasaki  first  knew  of  the  event 
by  hearing  the  people  in  the  Yoshiwara  talk  of  the 
handsome  young  Samurai,  who,  for  his  heinous 
crimes,  had  been  forbidden  the  jDrivilege  of  his  rank 
to  commit  the  hara-kiri :  but  was  despatched  like 
a  common  malefactor.  The  same  night  she  fled 
from  the  "  Three  Sea  Coasts,"  walked  all  the  way 
swift-footed  to  Meguro,  and  threw  herself  on  the 
newly-made  grave  of  her  lover,  whose  sins  she 
seems  too  easily  to  have  forgiven,  committed  for 
her  sake.  In  the  morning  the  priests  of  the  temple 
found  the  dead  body  of  the  lovely  girl,  lying  with 
pierced  throat,  by  the  stone.  They  placed  her  side 
by  side  with  Gompachi,  in  the  same  earth,  and, 
with  all  their  faults,  the  loving  fidelity  of  "  Little 
Wild  Indigo "  and  the  desperate  devotion  of  her 
guilty,  but  brave  and  handsome  Samurai,  have,  it 
seems,  consecrated  the  place,  so  that  it  is  the  chief 
attraction  of  Meguro.  As  usual  in  all  such  Japanese 
stories,  the  woman  comes  out  best.  It  was  certainly 
for  the  sake  of  Ko-Murasaki,  and  not  at  all  for 
Gompachi's,    that   I    myself  paid    for    the   incense 


A  JAPANESE   LOVE   STORY.  445 

sticks.  To  make  even  of  her  an  ideal  heroine  the 
Western  mind  would  have,  no  doubt,  a  good  deal  to 
excuse;  yet  it  is  characteristic  of  the  Japanese  way 
of  thinking  on  these  subjects  that  Ko-Murasaki  is 
praised  upon  her  tombstone  for  her  misao — that  is 
to  say,  her  feminine  virtue.  As  we  sat  afterwards 
in  the  tea-house  watching  the  white  lotuses  close  up 
one  by  one  as  the  sun  disappeared,  and  drinking 
tea  perfumed  with  the  salted  blossoms  of  the  cherry, 
I  inquired  how  the  priests  could  possibly  eulogise 
a  girl  who,  whatever  her  difficulties  and  distresses, 
had  notoriously  taken  service  in  the  Yoshiwara. 
The  answer  was,  in  Japanese,  Karada  de  nema 
shita,  Kokoro  no  naka  de  nemasen  deshita,  which 
means  "  That  she  sinned  not  with  the  will  of  her 
heart."  And  this  appeared  to  be  quite  the  accepted 
view  of  those  present. 

Azabu,  August,  1890. 


CHAPTEE  XXXV. 

ASCENT    OF    FUJI-SAN. 

I  have  just  made,  in  the  company  of  Captain 
John  Ingles,  R.N.,  Xaval  Adviser  to  the  Imperial 
Government  of  this  country,  and  a  young  Japanese 
gentleman — Mr.  Asso — a  very  fortunate  and  delight- 
ful ascent  of  Fuji-San,  the  famous  mountain.  You 
would  not  wonder,  residing  here,  that  everybody  in 
Japan  talks  about  Fuji,  and  thinks  about  her  ;  paints 
her  on  fans,  and  limns  her  with  gold  on  lacquer ; 
carves  her  on  temple  gates  and  house-fronts,  and 
draws  her  for  curtains  of  shops,  and  signboards  of 
inns,  rest-houses,  and  public  institutions.  Living 
in  Tokio,  or  Yokohama,  or  anywhere  along  this 
Tokaido — the  Southern  road  of  Japan — you  would 
soon  perceive  how  the  great  volcano  dominates  every 
landscape,  asserts  perpetually  her  sovereignty  over 
all  other  hills  and  mountains,  and  becomes  in  reality 
as  well  as  imagination,  an  indisj>ensable  element  in 
the  national  scenery.  Far  away  at  sea,  when  ap- 
proaching Japan,  if  the  weather  be  clear,  long  before 
the  faintest  blue  line  of  coast  is  discernible  from  the 
deck,  there  is  seen  hanging  in  the  air  a  dim  white 
symmetrical  cone,  too  constant  for  a  cloud,  which  is 

Fuji-San.     After  you  have  landed  and  taken  up  your 

446 


ASCENT  OF  FUJI-SAN.  447 

residence  at  Yokohama,  Tokio,  or  any  point  of  the 
south-eastern  littoral,  you  will  be  always  seeing 
Fuji-Yama  from  some  garden-nook,  some  tea-house 
gallery,  some  grove  of  cryptomerias,  or  thicket  of 
bamboo,  or  even  from  the  railway-carriage  window. 
In  the  spring  and  autumn,  as  frequently  as  not,  she 
will,  indeed,  be  shrouded  in  the  dense  masses  of 
white  or  grey  cumulus  which  her  crest  collects,  and 
seems  to  create,  from  the  mists  of  the  Pacific.  But 
during  summer,  when  the  snows  are  all  melted  from 
the  vast  cone,  and  again  in  winter,  when  she  is 
covered  with  snow  half  way  down  her  colossal  sides, 
but  the  air  is  clear,  the  superb  mountain  stands  forth, 
dawn  after  dawn,  and  evening  after  evening — like 
no  other  eminence  in  the  world  for  beauty,  majesty, 
and  perfectness  of  outline.  There  are  loftier  peaks, 
of  course,  for  Fuji-San  is  not  much  higher  than 
Mont  Blanc,  but  there  is  none — not  even  Etna — 
which  rises  so  proudly,  alone,  isolated,  distinct, 
from  the  very  brink  of  the  sea — with  nothing  to 
hide  or  diminish  the  dignity  of  the  splendid  and 
immense  curves  sweeping  up  from  where  the  broad 
foot  rests,  planted  on  the  Suruga  Gulf,  to  where 
the  imperial  head  soars,  lifted  high  above  the  clouds 
into  the  blue  of  the  firmament.  By  many  and 
many  a  picture  or  photograph  you  must  know  well 
those  almost  perfectly  matched  flanks,  that  massive 
base,  the  towering  lines  of  that  mighty  cone,  slightly 
truncated  and  dentated  at  the  summit.  But  no 
picture  gives,  and  no  artist  could  ever  reproduce,  the 
variety  and  charm  of  the  aspects  which  Fuji-San 
puts  on  from  day  to  day  and  hour  to  hour  under  the 


448  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

differing  influences  of  air  and  weather.  Sometimes 
it  is  as  a  white  cloud  that  you  see  her,  among  the 
white  clouds,  changeless  among  the  changeful  shapes 
from  which  she  emerges.  Sometimes  there  will 
break  forth,  high  above  all  clouds,  a  patch  of  deep 
grey  against  the  blue,  the  broad  head  of  Fuji. 
Sometimes  you  will  only  know  where  she  sits  by 
the  immense  collection  of  cirrus  and  cirro-cumulus 
there  alone  gathered  in  the  sky ;  and  sometimes — 
principally  at  dawn  and  nightfall — she  will  suddenly 
manifest  herself,  from  her  foot,  jewelled  with  rich 
harvests,  to  her  brow,  bare  and  lonely  as  a  desert — 
all  violet  against  the  gold  of  the  setting  sun,  or  else 
all  gold  and  green  against  the  rose  and  silver  of  the 
daybreak. 

Fuji-San,  even  among  her  loftiest  sisters,  is  a 
giantess,  nearer,  by  the  best  calculation,  to  13,000 
than  12,000  feet  of  elevation.  The  legend  is  that 
she  rose  in  a  single  night,  at  about  the  date  of 
Alexander  the  Great ;  and  it  is  not  impossible.  In 
806  a.d.  a  temple  was  established  on  the  mountain 
to  the  honour  of  the  beautiful  Goddess  Ko-nohana- 
saku-ya-Hime,  though  there  is  also  a  special  deity 
of  the  eminence  styled  "  O-ana-mochi-no-Mikoto," 
which  means  "  Possessor  of  the  Great  Hole  or 
Crater."  As  late  as  the  fourteenth  century  Fuji  was 
constantly  smoking,  and  fire  is  spoken  of  with  the 
eruptions,  the  last  of  which  took  place  in  December, 
1707,  and  continued  for  nearly  forty  days.  The 
Ho-yei-san,  or  hump  on  the  south  face,  was  pro- 
bably then  formed.  In  this,  her  final  outbreak, 
Fuji  covered    Tokio    itself,  sixty  miles  away,  with 


ASCENT  OF  FUJI-SAN.  449 

six  inches  of  ash,  and  sent  rivers  of  lava  far  and 
wide.  Since  then  she  has  slept,  and  only  one  little 
spot  underneath  the  Kwan-nom-Gatake,  on  the  lip 
of  the  crater,  where  steam  exhales,  and  the  red 
pumice-cracks  are  hot,  shows  that  the  heart  of  this 
huge  volcano  yet  glows,  and  that  she  is  capable  of  de- 
stroying- again  her  own  beauty  and  the  forests  and  rich 
regions  of  fertility  which  clothe  her  knees  and  feet. 

It  is  a  circuit  of  120  miles  to  go  all  round  the  base 
of  Fuji-San.  If  you  could  cut  a  tunnel  through  her, 
from  Yoshiwara  to  Kawaguchi,  it  would  be  forty 
miles  long.  Generally  speaking,  the  lower  portion 
of  the  mountain  is  cultivated  to  a  height  of  1500 
feet,  and  it  is  a  whole  province  which  thus  climbs 
round  her.  From  the  border  of  the  farms  there 
begins  a  rough  and  wild,  but  flowery  moorland, 
which  stretches  round  the  hill  to  an  elevation  of 
4000  feet,  where  the  thick  forest-belt  commences. 
This  girdles  the  volcano  up  to  7000  feet  on  the 
Subashiri  side  and  8000  on  the  Murayama  face,  but 
is  lower  to  the  eastward.  Above  the  forest  extends 
a  narrow  zone  of  thicket  and  bush,  chiefly  dwarfed 
larch,  juniper,  and  a  vaccinium;  after  which  comes 
the  bare,  burnt,  and  terribly  majestic  peak  itself, 
where  the  only  living  thing  is  a  little  yellow  lichen 
which  grows  in  the  fissures  of  the  lava  blocks,  for 
no  eagle  or  hawk  ventures  so  high,  and  the  boldest 
or  most  bewildered  butterfly  will  not  be  seen  above 
the  bushes  half-way  down. 

The  best — indeed,  the  only — time  for  the  ascent 
of  the  mountain  is  between  July  lo  and  September  5. 
During  this  brief  season  the  snow  will  be  melted  from 


45©  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

the  cone,  the  huts  upon  the  path  will  be  opened  for 
pilgrims,  and  there  will  be  only  the  danger  of  getting 
caught  by  a  typhoon,  or  reaching  the  summit  to  find 
it  swathed  day  after  day  in  clouds,  and  no  view 
obtainable.  Our  party  of  three  started  for  the  ascent 
on  August  25,  taking  that  one  of  the  many  roads  by 
which  Fuji  is  approached  that  goes  by  Subashiri. 
Such  an  expedition  may  be  divided  into  a  series 
of  stages.  You  have  first  to  approach  the  foot  of 
the  mountain  by  train  or  otherwise,  then  to  ride 
through  the  long  slope  of  cultivated  region.  Then, 
abandoning  horses  or  vehicles,  to  traverse  on  foot 
the  sharper  slopes  of  the  forest  belt.  At  the  con- 
fines of  this  you  will  reach  the  first  station,  called 
Sho,  or  Go;  for  Japanese  fancy  has  likened  the 
mountain  to  a  heap  of  dry  rice,  and  the  stations 
are  named  by  rice-measure.  From  the  first  station 
to  the  ninth,  whatever  road  you  take,  all  will  be 
hard,  hot,  continuous  climbing.  You  must  go  by 
narrow,  bad  paths,  such  as  a  goat  might  make,  in 
loose  volcanic  dust,  gritty  pumice,  or  over  the 
sharp  edges  of  lava  dykes,  which  cut  boots  and 
sandals  to  shreds.  Fuji-San  can  be  easily  conquered 
by  any  robust  person  in  good  condition,  with  plenty 
of  time  and  perseverance ;  but  I  would  not,  after  my 
experience,  readily  take  a  lady  up.  Ladies  have 
ascended,  for  the  restriction  no  longer  exists  which 
forbade  the  sacred  mountain  to  women.  But  a 
sprained  ankle  or  a  breakdown  of  any  sort,  between 
the  fourth  station  and  the  top,  especially  if  the 
weather  were  bad,  would  create  a  most  embarrassing 
position. 


ASCENT  OF  FUJI-SAN.  451 

To  ourselves  the  Queen  of  mountains  was  divinely 
favourable  in  point  of  weather  and  every  other 
respect.  Taking  train  from  Tokio  to  Gotemba,  a 
station  at  the  mountain's  foot,  we  engaged  "  two 
men  rikisha  "  to  Subashiri ;  rolling  along  a  rough 
but  pretty  country  road,  lined  with  pine  and  bamboo, 
and  rice  fields  where  the  early  crop  was  already  in 
ear.  Silk  is  a  great  product  of  the  region,  and  piles 
of  cocoons  lay  in  the  sunshine,  while  the  winding- 
reel  everywhere  buzzed  inside  the  cottages.  From 
time  to  time  Fuji  would  reveal  portions  of  her 
mighty  outline,  but  she  was  mainly  shrouded  till  we 
reached  Subashiri,  and  put  up  at  a  native  inn  called 
Yone-Yana.  It  is  the  custom  with  pilgrims  to 
present  the  flags  of  their  sect  which  they  bring  to 
the  innkeepers,  who  suspend  them  on  strings,  the 
consequence  being  that  the  little  town  fluttered 
with  pennons  of  all  colours  from  end  to  end  of  the 
long  street,  terminating  and  overhanging  which  you 
saw  Fuji-San — gigantic,  beautiful,  terrible — clearly 
and  cloudlessly  shown  from  head  to  foot,  promising  us 
a  good  reward  for  our  climb  of  the  morrow.  In  the 
inn  at  night  all  the  talk  is  about  the  volcano,  the 
state  of  the  path,  the  chances  of  fine  weather,  and 
so  forth.  We  order  three  horses  and  six  ninsoku, 
or  "  leg-men,"  to  carry  the  indispensable  blankets 
and  provisions.  They  are  to  be  ready  at  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  and  we  turn  in  early  to  get  as  much 
sleep  as  possible. 

At  daybreak  the  horses  are  brought,  and  the  six 
coolies,  two  by  two,  bind  upon  their  backs  the 
futon*  and   the  food.     We  start,  a  long  procession, 


452  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

through  a  broad  avenue  in  the  forest,  riding  for  five 
miles,  under  a  lovely  dawn,  the  sun  shining  gloriously 
on  the  forehead  of  Fuji,  who  seems  farther  off  and 
more  immensely  lofty  the  nearer  we  approach.  The 
woodland  is  full  of  wild  strawberries  and  flowers ; 
including  tiger-lilies,  clematis,  Canterbury  bells, 
and  the  blue  hotari-no-hana,  or  fire-fly  blossom.  At 
6.30  a.m.  we  reach  Uma-Gayeshi,  or  "turn-the-horses 
back,"  and  hence  to  the  mountain  top  there  is 
nothing  for  it  but  to  walk  every  step  of  the  long, 
steep,  and  difficult  path.  Two  of  the  men  with  the 
lightest  loads  led  the  way  along  the  narrow  path,  in 
a  wood  so  thick  that  we  shall  not  see  Fuji  again  till 
we  have  passed  through  it.  It  takes  us  every  now  and 
then  through  the  gates  and  precincts  of  little  Shinto 
temples,  where  the  priests  offer  us  tea  or  mountain 
water.  In  one  of  these,  at  Ko-mitake,  we  are 
invited  to  ring  the  brass  gong  in  order  that  the  deity 
may  make  our  limbs  strong  for  the  task  before  us. 
And  this  is  solemnly  done  by  all  hands,  the  ninsoku 
slapjring  their  brown  thighs  piously  after  sounding 
the  bell.  Presently  the  forest  clears  away  ;  we  are 
in  sunlight  again,  well  upon  the  lower  slopes  of 
Fuji ;  but  the  opening  is  due  to  an  awful  pheno- 
menon. In  the  early  part  of  the  year  an  avalanche 
had  descended  down  the  valley  which  we  are  climb- 
ing. In  a  single  night  Fuji  will  often  collect 
millions  of  tons  of  snow  upon  her  cone,  and  then 
will  let  it  slip  next  day,  as  a  lady  puts  off  her  bonnet 
de  nuit.  One  of  these  great  snow  slides  has  rolled 
down  our  valley  and  crushed  perfectly  flat  every 
shrub  and  sapling  and  tree,  on  a  track,  half  a  mile 


ASCENT  OF  FUJI-SAX.  453 

wide  right  through  the  forest.  The  stoutest  pines 
and  beeches,  the  sturdiest  larches  and  oaks,  are 
broken  short  off  at  the  root  and  pressed  close  to  the 
earth,  just  as  when  a  heavy  roller  goes  over  long 
grass.  One  look  at  this  is  enough  to  explain  why  it 
is  not  prudent  to  ascend  Fuji  when  the  snow  lies 
upon  her  sides. 

Up  those  sides  we  must  now  steadily  trudge  by  a 
path  which  begins  unproniisingly  enough,  and  grows 
constantly  ruder  and  harder.  It  is  not  so  bad  among 
the  dwarf  alder  bushes,  where  grows  the  curious 
and  very  rare  glabra,  called  by  the  Japanese  0 
Xiku,  the  root  of  which  is  sovereign  for  wounds  and 
bruises.  But  it  is  quite  bad  enough  long  before  we 
reach  Shi-go-me,  at  9.30  a.m.,  where  we  are  to 
breakfast.  This  is  Station  No.  4,  a  rude  hut  built  of 
black  and  red  lava  blocks,  and  standing  at  an  eleva- 
tion of  8420  feet.  You  will  see  how  we  have  been 
ascending.  The  stage  on  horseback  from  Subashiri 
lifted  us  2000  feet;  to  the  temple  with  the  bell  we 
made  another  2000  feet  of  altitude ;  and  now,  at 
Shi-go-me,  we  are  2000  feet  higher  still.  A  vast 
stratum  of  clouds  hides  at  present  the  lower  world  ; 
but  it  breaks  away  in  places  to  let  us  see  and 
admire  a  lovely  lake  shaped  like  the  new  moon, 
and  called  Mikazuki,  shining  in  the  hills  near 
Yoshida.  It  is  already  welcome  enough  to  bait 
and  shake  the  sharp  ashes  from  our  boots,  while  we 
drink  Liebig  essence  in  hot  water  and  eat  tinned 
meats  with  an  appetite  sharpened  by  the  already 
keen  air.  But  we  have  a  great  height  yet  to  climb 
to    No.   6    Station,  where    we    shall    lunch,  and    the 


454  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

path  henceforward  is  of  two  kinds — both  abomin- 
able. Either  you  zigzag  to  and  fro  in  the  loose 
black  and  red  ashes,  too  steep  and  slippery  to  climb 
directly ;  or  you  pick  your  way  over  the  rugged 
slag  and  clinkers  of  a  lava  dyke,  which  is  like 
ascending  a  shattered  flight  of  steps  or  climbimg 
the  face  of  a  furnace  bank.  Every  fifteen  minutes 
one  or  other  of  the  strong  mountaineers  accompany- 
ing us  cries  out,  "  O  yasumi !"  and  we  all  sink 
gladly  on  the  nearest  block,  breathing  quick  and 
hard,  the  air  being  now  so  rarefied  that  it  seems 
impossible  to  get  enough  into  the  lungs. 

After  each  rest,  of  a  minute  or  two,  we  plod  on 
towards  the  little  black  lava  hut  marked  by  flutter- 
ing red  and  white  flags,  which  is  our  next  goal ; 
and  truly  very  far  off,  and  very  high  up,  and  very 
hard  to  reach  each  in  turn  seems  to  be.  Yet  one 
by  one,  keeping  steadily  at  work,  we  attain  to 
stations  "  four  and  a  half,"  "  five,"  "  five  and  a  half" 
(Gogo,  go,  Shaku),  and  then  at  last  to  No.  6  (Roku- 
go-Me),  where  we  stand  10,000  feet  above  the  sea. 
A  halt  is  called  in  the  little  hut  for  "  tiffin  "  and 
pipes,  and  we  are  joined  by  a  party  of  pilgrims 
dressed  all  in  white,  with  huge  white  soup-plate 
hats,  who,  like  ourselves,  are  glad  enough  of  a  little 
rest  and  a  whiff  or  two  of  the  kiseru.  Presently 
we  start  again  up  this  tremendous  cone,  which  seems 
to  soar  higher  and  higher  in  the  blue  the  harder 
we  toil  to  conquer  it.  Nevertheless,  early  in  the 
afternoon  we  do  reach  Station  No.  8,  where  we  shall 
pass  the  night,  more  than  11,000  feet  above  sea  level. 
Not  only  is  the  air  very  rarefied,  but  also  very  cold. 


ASCEXT  OF  FUJI-SAN.  455 

There  lies  a  large  pateh  of  snow  in  a  hollow  of  the 
cone  close  by,  and  the  water  freezes  where  it  drips 
from  the  kitchen.  All  vegetation  has  vanished, 
even  the  polygonum,  and  we  are  glad  to  unpack 
our  blankets  and  lie  under  them  round  the  hibachi, 
while  such  a  meal  as  the  mountain  hut  can  furnish 
is  being  prepared.  It  consists  of  little  else  than 
small  salted  fish  fried  upon  rice,  but  we  supplement 
it  with  tinned  provisions,  and  wash  it  down  with 
weak  whisky  and  water.  To  realise  the  sleep  which 
ensues  after  pipes  and  Japanese  chat  you  must  have 
been  yourself  climbing  from  daybreak  till  four  in  the 
afternoon.  The  shortest  time  in  which  the  ascent 
has  been  made  is  six  hours  and  a  half.  We,  taking- 
it  more  easily,  made  no  attempt  to  beat  the  record, 
and  stopped  frequently  to  botanise,  geologise,  &c. 
The  rarefaction  of  the  air  gave  our  Japanese  com- 
panion, Takeji  San,  a  slight  headache,  which  soon 
passed  as  the  circulation  became  accustomed  to  the 
atmosphere ;  but  Captain  Ingles  and  I,  being,  I 
suppose,  both  in  excellent  health  and  strength, 
experienced  no  inconvenience  worth  mentioning. 

At  half-past  four  next  morning,  while  I  was 
dreaming  under  my  thick  coverings,  a  hand  touched 
me  and  a  voice  said  softly,  "  Dan na  Sama,  hi  no 
de !"  "  Master,  here  is  the  sun  !"  The  shoji  at  my 
feet  where  thrown  open.  I  looked  out,  almost  as  you 
might  from  the  moon,  over  a  prodigious  abyss  of 
space,  beyond  which  the  eastern  rim  of  all  the 
world  seemed  to  be  on  lire  with  flaming  light.  A 
belt  of  splendid  rose  and  gold  illumined  all  the 
horizon,  darting  long  spears  of  glory  into  the  dark 


456  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

sky  overhead,  gilding  the  tops  of  a  thousand  hills, 
scattered  over  the  purple  plains  below,  and  casting 
on  the  unbroken  background  of  clouds  beyond  an 
enormous  shadow  of  Fuji.  The  spectacle  was  of 
unparalleled  splendour,  recalling  Lord  Tennyson's 
line — 

"  And,  in  the  feast, 
God  made  Himself  an  awful  Rose  of  Dawn." 

Moment  by  moment  it  grew  more  wonderful  in 
loveliness  of  colour  and  brilliant  birth  of  day ;  and 
then,  suddenly,  just  when  the  sun  rolled  into  sight — 
an  orb  of  gleaming  gold,  flooding  the  world  beneath 
with  almost  insufferable  radiance — a  vast  mass  of 
dense  white  clouds  swept  before  the  north  wind 
over  the  view,  completely  blotting  out  the  sun,  the 
belt  of  rose  and  gold,  the  lighted  mountains  and 
plains,  and  the  lower  regions  of  Fuji-San.  It  was 
day  again,  but  misty,  white,  and  doubtful ;  and  when 
we  started  to  climb  the  last  two  stages  of  the  cone 
the  flags  of  the  stations  were  invisible,  and  we  could 
not  know  whether  we  should  find  the  summit  clear, 
or  wrapped  in  enveloping  clouds. 

All  wras  to  be  fortunate,  however,  on  this  happy 
day ;  and  after  a  hard  clambering  of  the  remaining 
2000  feet  we  planted  our  staffs  victoriously  on  the 
level  ground  of  the  crater's  lip,  and  gazed  north,  south, 
east,  and  west  through  clear  and  cloudless  atmos- 
phere over  a  prodigious  prospect,  whose  diameter 
could  not  be  less  than  300  miles.  It  wTas  one  ot 
the  few  days  when  O-ana-mochi,  the  Lord  of  the 
Great   Hole,  was   wholly   propitious!     Behind   the 


ASCENT  OF  FUJI-SAX.  457 

lonir  row  of  little  black  huts,  standing  on  the  edge 
of  the  mountain,  gaped  that  awful,  deadly  Cup  of 
the  Volcano — an  immense  pit  half  a  mile  wide  and 
six  or  seven  hundred  feet  deep,  its  sides  black, 
yellow,  red,  white,  and  grey,  with  the  varying  hues 
of  the  lava  and  scoriae.  In  one  spot,  where  a  per- 
petual shadow  lay,  from  the  ridge-peaks  of  Ken-ga- 
mine and  the  Shaka-no-wari-ishi,  or  "  Cleft  Rock  of 
Buddha,"  gleamed  a  large  patch  of  unmelted  snow, 
and  there  was  dust-covered  snow  at  the  bottom  of 
the  crater.  We  skirted  part  of  the  crater,  passed 
by  the  dangerous  path  which  is  styled  "  Oya-shirazu, 
Ko-shirazu,"  "  The  place  where  you  must  forget 
parents  and  children,  to  take  care  of  yourself;  "  saw 
the  issue  of  the  Kim-mei-sai,  or  "  Golden  famous 
water,"  and  of  the  Gim-mei-sai,  or  "  Silver  famous 
water,"  and  come  back  to  breakfast  at  our  hut 
silent  with  the  delight  and  glory,  the  beauty  and 
terror  of  the  scene.  Enormous  flocks  of  fleecy 
clouds  and  cloudlets  wandered  in  the  lower  air, 
many  thousand  feet  beneath,  but  nowhere  concealed 
the  lakes,  peaks,  rivers,  towns,  villages,  valleys,  sea- 
coasts,  islands,  and  distant  provinces  spreading  out 
all  round.  Imagine  the  prospect  obtainable  at 
13,000  feet  of  elevation  through  the  silvery  air  of 
Japan  on  a  summer's  morning  with  not  a  cloud, 
except  shifting,  thin,  and  transitory  ones,  to  veil 
the  view!  I  had  promised  a  Japanese  lady,  with 
whose  friendship  I  am  honoured,  to  carry  her  stall' 
up  and  down  Fuji,  and  to  write  her  a  letter  in  verse 
from  its  summit  ;  and  I  will  venture  to  quote  from 
this    letter,  which    \  composed,  wrapped  in  rugs  and 


458  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

coats,  on  the  mats  of  the  hut  at  the  top,  while  our 
rice  was  being  cooked,  since  it  records  the  actual 
impressions  of  the  hour  : — ■ 

"Summit  of  Fuji-Yama,  August,  26,  1890. 

"  On  the  top  of  Fuji-San 
Now  we  lie ;  and  half  Japan, 
Like  a  map  immense,  unrolled, 
Spreads  beneath  us,  green  and  gold. 
Southwards — pale  and  bright — the  Sea 
Shines,  from  distant  Misaki 
Round  Atami's  broken  coast, 
Till  its  silvery  gleam  is  lost, 
Mingled  with  the  silvery  sky, 
Far  away  towards  Narumi. 
Northwards,  yonder  blink  of  blue 
Over  Mina  and  Bi-shiu 
(Say  the  guides)  is  Biwa  Lake 
Forty  ri  removed — to  take 
The  stork's  road,  through  the  sapphire  air : — 
Now,  if  I  had  his  painted  pair 
Of  wings,  I  would  this  moment  lend 
Those  strong  plumes  to  my  absent  Friend, 
That  she  might  come  without  one  soil 
Of  dust  on  tabi,  or  long  toil 
Of  weary  walking  up  this  steep, 
To  gaze  o'er  the  Pacific  dee]), 
Fuji's  vast  sides,  a  Mountain-world — 
With,  halfway  down,  the  soft  clouds  curled 
Around  her  waist,  an  obi  fair, 
Scarlet  and  gold,  like  what  you  wear ! 

The  Rivers,  running  far  below, 
As  white  threads  on  a  green  cloth  show ; 
The  towns  are  tiny  purple  spots, 
The  villages  small  greyish  dots. 


ASCENT  OF  FUJI-SAN.  459 

Over  the  tallest  mountain?  round 

We  look  for  Fuji's  monstrous  mound, 

And  sec  clear  past  them,  just  as  you 

Spy  Mita  plain  from  Azabu. 

O-Yama  to  a  molehill  shrinks! 

Bakai-Zan,  now,  one  hardly  thinks 

As  high  as  Kompira,  that  hill 

You  climbed,  with  such  good  grace  aud  will, 

At  Ikao,  in  the  pelting  rain  ; 

We  see  those  Ikao  ranges  plain, 

Beyond  Ko-shiu,  and,  near  to  view, 

Karuizawa's  green  tops,  too. 

What  sunny  hours,  what  pleasant  times, 

We  had  there  in  our  strolls  and  climbs ! 

I  like  the  Mountains  of  Japan 

Best,  at  your  side,  O  Yoshi  San  ! 

".Gotemba  to  Subashiri 

The  road  was  rough,  yet  fair  to  see  ; 

Red  lilies  glittered  in  the  grass, 

And  rice  waved  green  as  we  did  pass 

Kigher  to  this  majestic  Hill, 

Which  grander  grew,  and  statelier  still 

In  ever-changing  cloudy  dress 

As  we  drew  close  :  her  loveliness 

Most  perfect,  when,  at  sunset-time, 

The  mists  rolled  from  this  brow  sublime 

And  showed — o'erhanging  the  long  street — 

Alive  with  many  a  pilgrim's  feet, 

And  fluttering  with  ten  thousand  Hags — 

Proud  Fuji  to  her  topmost  crags, 

Purple  against  the  amber  sky, 

A  Queen  !     A  World  !     A  Mystery! 

While  yet  we  paced  the  forest  road. 
Where  dark  woods  make  a  garment  broad 
For  Fuji's  knees,  and  dappled  shade 
Upon  the  crumbling  pumice  played, 


460  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

I  wished  you  nigh,  that  you  might  share 
The  sweetness  of  the  morning's  air, 
The  glory  of  the  sunrise,  now 
Crowning  with  gold  great  Fuji's  brow. 
But  where  the  avalanches  tear 
The  flank  of  the  red  mountain  bare, 
And  we  to  climb  this  peak  began 
'Mid  rocks  and  dust,  O  Yoshi  San ! 
At  each  hard  step  I  did  rejoice 
Not  there  to  hear  your  lightsome  voice, 
Not  there  to  see  your  zorl  tread 
The  way  which,  ever  overhead, 
Zigzagged  the  shoulder  of  the  crag, 
All  shifting  lava-ash  and  slag. 
Glad  were  we,  as  each  point  we  gain, 
To  know  you  safe  in  the  warm  plain ! 

Clambering  from  "  Station  .Nine's  "  bleak  rock, 
We  reached  the  "  Cup  "  at  eight  o'clock, 
Where  I  pen  this,  to  keep  my  word, 
And  show  that,  wholly  undeterred 
By  cold,  and  high  up  in  the  sky, 
My  thoughts  back  to  my  best  friends  fly 
Down  from  the  top  of  green  Japan, 
To  chat  with  you,  O  Yoshi  San  ! 
To  say,  "  Ohayo  /"  thus  to  you, 
.  Through  thirty  ri  of  sundering  Blue !" 

We  made  a  long  march  of  it  that  day  of  delight  ; 
for,  besides  finishing  the  assault  of  the  mountain 
from  the  Eighth  Station  to  the  top  and  walking  about 
the  crater's  rim,  we  had  to  get  all  the  way  back  on 
foot  to  Uma-gayeshi,  where  our  horses  would  be 
waiting.  But  down-hill  and  up-hill  are  different 
things,  and  though  it  is  extremely  uncomfortable 
work,  ploughing  ankle-deep  in  lava-dust  on  the  de- 


ASCENT  OF  FUJI-SAN.  461 

scending  paths,  which  go  more  directly  than  the 
ascending,  still  we  made  good  time,  and  reached 
Ichi-go-Me,  the  lowest  hut,  by  1.30  p.  m.  A  steep 
descent  in  loose  slag  is  perhaps  worse  than  a  steep 
climb  over  lava-dykes,  but  does  not  last  so  long, 
and  certainly  there  is  nothing  in  the  feat  of  crown- 
ing Fuji-San  of  which  a  reasonably  vigorous  man 
has  any  reason  to  be  proud.  It  is  easy  enough  with 
perseverance  and  good  wind  and  legs  ;  but  I  would 
never  advise  ladies  to  essay  it,  nor  men  not  in 
good  condition.  Thirteen  thousand  feet  of  altitude 
naturally  imply  some  sturdy  exertion,  and  neither  I 
nor  my  companions  would  deny  that  the  mats  of  the 
inn  at  Subashiri  seemed  wonderfully  soft  and  wel- 
come when  we  threw  ourselves  upon  them  at  dinner- 
time that  Wednesday  evening.  At  the  temple  with 
the  bell  we  were  duly  stamped — shirts,  sticks,  and 
clothing — with  the  sacred  mark  of  the  Mountain, 
and  having  made  the  hearts  of  our  faithful  and 
patient  ninsoku  glad  with  extra  pay,  turned  our 
backs  on  the  great  extinct  volcano,  whose  crest, 
glowing  again  in  the  morning  sunlight,  had  no 
longer  any  secrets  for  Captain  Ingles,  or  Takaji  Han, 
or  myself. 

Azabu,  August  30. 


CHAPTER    XXXVI. 

IN    THE   JAPANESE    MOUNTAINS. 

Japan  is  a  land  of  mountains,  and  the  Japanese  pas- 
sionately admire,  and  vastly  delight  in  the  beautiful 
highlands  which  diversify  their  Empire.  Twelve- 
thirteenths  of  its  surface  are  indeed  totally  withdrawn 
from  cultivation,  either  by  the  broken  character  of 
the  country  or  the  prevalence  on  the  uplands  and 
ranges  of  dense  undergrowth  of  bamboo-grass  and 
wild  thicket,  which  nothing  can  clear  away.  Except 
in  small  patches,  therefore,  where  circumstances  are 
favourable  to  an  energetic  agriculture,  the  Japanese 
regard  and  employ  their  mountains  chiefly  as  delights 
to  the  eye  and  pleasant  refuges  from  the  sultry 
weather  which  is  now  bathing  the  plains  in  a  burn- 
ing, oppressive  atmosphere.  The  sea  coasts  at  this 
season  are  as  hot  as  the. inland  plains,  or  hotter,  and 
there  is  thus  an  almost  universal  exodus  of  people 
from  the  cities,  towns,  and  villages  to  the  innumer- 
able places  of  retreat  perched  amid  the  green  and 
lovely  hills  of  Nippon.  The  fashion  among  the 
middle  and  lower  classes  of  the  people  is  to  go  as 
pilgrims.  Dressed  in  a  white  haori,  white  drawers, 
and  white  leggings — that  colour  betokening  peni- 
tence for   past  sins,  and  a  resolution,  more  or   less 

462 


A    (Ol'NTKY     WOMAN. 1  T  I :  I      AND    1   I.OWKKf 


IN   THE  JAPANESE   MOUNTAINS.  463 

earnest,  to  turn  over  a  new  leaf  of  the  book  of  life 
— the  citizen  starts  forth  with  a  coloured  flag,  a  stall', 
a  small  satchel,  and  a  straw  hat,  marked  with  the 
symbol  of  his  sect,  for  some  favoured  spot,  high 
among  the  hills,  where  he  can  unite  a  little  devotion 
with  a  great  deal  of  pure,  cool  air,  delightful  scenery, 
and  constant  bathing.  He  needs  not  to  carry,  and 
he  does  not  carry,  any  luggage.  His  bare  feet  want 
no  newly-washed  tabi.  At  every  yadoya  he  will 
be  supplied  with  a  clean  kimono  for  his  bath  and 
dinner,  with  futons  to  sleep  upon,  and  with  the 
simple  food,  supplemented  by  the  eternal  gozen  (the 
tub  of  boiled  rice),  which  is  all  he  needs,  for  an 
extremely  small  sum  per  diem.  Europeans  are 
naturally,  and  not  improperly,  overcharged  at  such 
resorts,,  since  they  prove  ofttimes  difficult  guests  ;  but 
we — a  party  of  six — have  lately  paid  a  bill  at  the 
native  inn  of  this  place  for  four  days'  board  and 
lodging,  together  with  washing  and  plenty  of  fresh 
milk,  which  did  but  amount  to  eleven  yen,  or  about 
thirty-four  shillings.  With  such  cheap  and  plea- 
sant arrangements  everywhere  existing,  the  Japanese 
people  move  about  their  beautiful  land  in  great 
numbers  during  the  summer  and  early  autumn, 
mostly  on  foot.  They  are  in  truth  a  nation  of 
pedestrians,  at  least  as  regards  the  lower  classes, 
and  shuffle  along  with  their  wooden  clogs  or  grass 
sandals  over  an  astonishing  deal  of  ground.  Many 
railway  lines  run  along  the  coasts  or  through  the 
•lowlands,  carrying  passengers  easily  and  quickly,  it 
not  with  very  great  comfort,  in  the  crowded  third 
class  carriages,  to  the  foot  of  many  a  splendid  range 


464  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

of  mountains.  Then  it  is  but  to  mount  with  a  stout 
step  to  some  village  nestled  three  or  four  thousand 
feet  above  the  rice  fields,  where  heat  and  mosquitoes 
are  left  behind,  and  the  boundless  verdure  of  the 
rolling  hills,  rich  with  a  hundred  flowers,  restores 
mind  and  body. 

Above  all,  your  Japanese  loves  those  spots  in  the 
mountains  where  a  hot  spring  issues  from  the  rocks 
and  can  be  utilised  for  baths  more  or  less  medicinal. 
Ikao,  whither  we  have  lately  repaired,  is  a  good 
specimen  of  such  a  place.  From  a  lovely  glen  in 
the  cleft  of  a  ridge  there  issues  here  a  thin  but 
strong  stream  of  warm  water,  so  impregnated  with 
sulphides  of  iron  and  soda  that  it  colours  all  its 
channel  a  bright  golden-yellow,  as  it  bubbles  and 
smokes  downwards  to  lose  itself  in  the  larger 
torrents.  Such  a  gift  from  the  subterranean  world 
— and  such  gifts  abound — almost  always  creates  in 
Japan  a  town  or  village  for  its  due  enjoyment.  Ikao 
climbs  up  the  mountain  alongside  its  jn'ecious  rillet 
of  the  "  O  Yu "  in  a  street  of  stone  stairs  more 
precipitous  and  picturesque  than  any  in  Malta ;  and 
all  the  inns  and  most  of  the  houses  lead  a  private 
trickle  of  the  hot  spring  through  bamboo  pipes  into 
a  bath-house,  where,  three  or  four  times  a  day, 
visitors  or  residents  sit  up  to  their  necks  in  the 
soft  embrace  of  the  liquid  heated  for  them  in  the 
underground  furnaces  of  our  Planet.  There  is  much 
simplicity  and  very  little  concealment  about  the 
system  of  these  Japanese  spas.  The  business  of 
the  place  is  to  bathe,  and,  with  or  without  garments, 
everybody  is  always  bathing,  as  always  the  golden 


EY    THE  JAPAXESE    MOLXTAEXS.  465 

water  is  bubbling  down  from  the  dark  rocks  which 
are  overshadowed  with  all  kinds  of  strange  trees, 
and  clad  with  ferns,  squills,  wild  clematis,  and  the 
Canterbury  bell,  called  here  "  chochin  no  hana" 
the  lantern-flower. 

Our  party  of  six,  including  the  two  Japanese 
ladies,  mounted  to  Ikao  by  a  long  string  of  ji/i- 
rikishciSy  each  drawn  by  two  men.  The  ascent 
occupies  four  hours,  and  the  kurumayas  stop  twice 
or  thrice  to  refresh.  Sharply  the  little  vehicles 
wheel  round  at  the  front  of  the  chaya  ;  the  mmumes 
raise  a  chorus  of  irrashais  ;  the  travellers  dismount 
and  sip  tea  or  barley-water ;  the  rikisha-men  wring 
the  perspiration  from  their  headcloths  and  coats, 
wash  down  their  tattooed  bodies  with  cold  water, 
rinse  out  their  mouths,  eat  a  bowl  of  rice  soaked 
with  hot  tea,  and  are  ready  again  for  a  long  spell  of 
uphill  work.  In  the  heart  of  the  hills  kurumas 
cannot  pass,  and  you  must  tramp  afoot  to  the  many 
lovely  spots  of  interest,  or  ride  in  the  kayo,  a  con- 
trivance of  luxurious  ease  for  the  native,  but  of 
swiftly-increasing  torture  to  the  foreigner.  It  is 
like  the  lid  of  a  big  basket  suspended  on  a  stout 
bamboo,  and  you  must  sit  on  your  feet,  or  cross  them 
against  the  slings  of  the  kayo — either  position 
speedily  resolving  itself  for  the  inexperienced  into 
something  between  paralysis  and  the  rack.  For  the 
most  part,  therefore,  during  the  many  and  delightful 
excursions  made  from  Ikao  as  a  centre  our  kayos 
followed  us  empty,  for  even  our  fair  Japanese  com- 
panions proved  excellent  pedestrians,  and  tripped 
and  glittered  through  the  winding  woods  and  over 


466  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

the  wild  moorlands,  clad  every  day  in  some  new 
and  bright  kimono,  which  made  them  look  like 
butterflies  or  birds.  Thus,  taking  each  day  our 
ample  tiffin  to  enjoy  in  some  lovely  sylvan  recess, 
some  ancient  temple,  or  by  the  music  and  coolness 
of  some  lonely  cascade,  we  visited  Benten-no-taki, 
the  waterfall  of  the  Goddess  of  Mercy ;  Kompira 
Yama,  the  Hill  of  the  Gods,  whence  half  Japan 
seemed  to  stretch  out,  green  and  tranquil,  at  our 
happy  feet;  Mizu-sawa,  where  we  lunched  at  the 
foot  of  the  altar  of  Buddha,  under  carvings  of  scarlet 
and  gold,  and  diapered  ceilings,  and  tall  black 
waving  cryptomerias,  in  a  spot  so  solemn  and  beau- 
tiful that  the  Gods  might  have  joined  our  repast ; 
Yumoto,  the  Glen  of  the  Spring,  greener  and  more 
gloriously  decked  with  ferns  and  wild  flowers  than 
any  Devonshire  or  Scottish  coombe  or  corrie ;  and, 
best  and  most  beautiful  of  all,  Haruna,  the  "  Village 
of  the  God,"  hard  to  be  reached,  but  worth  all  the 
fatigue  of  a  long  and  steep  tramp. 

One  of  the  very  fairest  spots  I  have  seen  on  this 
earth  lies  midway  between  Ikao  and  Haruna.  It  is 
a  wooded  ridge,  commanding  on  either  side  a  view 
of  vast  expanse  and  supreme  beauty.  To  the  left 
opens  the  verdant  -Haruna  vale,  the  narrow  path 
winding  down  into  a  wilderness  of  dark  majestic 
forests,  flowery  hill-sides,  fantastic  rocks,  and  foam- 
ing torrents ;  to  the  right  a  lovely  lake  sleeps  in  the 
green  basin  which  was  once  a  crater,  surrounded  by 
hills  of  wild  and  wonderful  shapes,  and  moorlands 
painted  with  stretches  of  white,  and  red,  and  yellow 
blossoms,  and    patches    of  black,    and    purple,  and 


IN   THE  JAPANESE   MOUNTAINS.  467 

saffron  soil.  The  profusion  of  lilies  growing  on  these 
level  spaces  was  truly  astonishing.  We  plunged 
through  the  bamboo-grass  and  reeds,  gathering 
indiscriminately  the  blood-red  tiger-lily,  the  white 
lily,  the  crown-imperial,  the  golden  lily — peculiar 
to  Japan — and  now  and  again  superb  sticks  of  the 
Lilium  auratum,  the  great  cream-coloured  bloom, 
spangled  with  gold,  and  silver,  and  purple,  the 
fragrance  of  which  is  as  delicious  as  its  grace  of 
shape  and  hue  is  perfect.  Our  ladies  came  down 
the  last  of  the  hills  homeward  bearing  not  merely 
boucpiets,  but  sheaves  of  the  floral  plunder.  It  was 
like  a  procession  from  a  picture  of  Cimabue,  Giotto, 
or  Fra  Angelico ;  and  I  think  if  their  descended 
angels  had  to  choose  an  earthly  dress,  the  bright 
and  graceful  kimono  and  obi  of  O  Fuku  San  and 
O  Yoshi  San  would  have  surely  appeared  as  near 
to  the  charm  of  a  Celestial  toilette  as  early  fabrics 
and  fashions  can  well  go !  And,  after  such  a  long, 
hard  tramp  over  the  mountains,  who  can  exaggerate 
the  delights  of  the  Japanese  bath  ?  It  is  the  first 
thing  we  all  think  of,  and  say,  0  Yu  ni  iketai — "I 
wish  to  go  into  the  honourable  hot  water  !  "  Dis- 
carding all  garments  but  the  loose,  comfortable 
kimono,  and  even  forgetting  to  inquire  if  dinner  be 
ready,  we  troop  down  to  the  bathing-house.  There  a 
row  of  little  chambers  contain  each  an  oblong  tank, 
level  with  the  sloping  floor,  into  which,  through 
bamboo  pipes,  the  hot  mineral  stream  jets.  Its  tem- 
perature is  about  110  degrees,  but  you  may  modify 
this  with  buckets  of  cold  water,  placed  at  hand. 
The  soft  caress  of  the  subterranean  lymph  seems  in 


468  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

a  moment  to  dissipate  all  bodily  fatigue.  Up  to 
your  chin  in  the  subtly-medicated  tide,  you  meditate 
placidly  on  the  adventures  of  the  day,  the  varied 
pictures  of  the  hills,  the  moorland  gilded  with  the 
yellow  lilies,  the  chatter  of  the  walk,  half  English, 
half  Japanese.  It  is  useless  to  dress  in  the  hot  little 
furo-do.  Every  pore  of  the  body  is  open,  and  towels 
are  of  no  avail.  Wrapped  again  in  the  kimono,  you 
emerge  into  the  open  air,  without  the  smallest  fear 
of  catching  cold,  and  wonder  no  longer  that  the 
whole  place  exists  solely  for  the  joy  of  dabbling 
perpetually  in  the  delicious  volcanic  rivulet. 

The  drawback  of  these  delectable  Japanese  moun- 
tains is  their  lack  of  animal  life.  Hardly  a  bird 
or  beast  will  be  seen  or  heard,  and  Nature  appears 
depopulated.  Upon  all  the  long  walk  to  and 
from  Haruna  I  did  but  see,  apart  from  the  crows 
and  high-flying  birds,  one  brown  snake  and  one  lark. 
One  hears  occasionally  the  uguisu,  called  by  flattery 
the  "  Japan  nightingale  " — known  to  science  as  the 
Cettria  ca?itans — but  its  notes,  though  sweet,  are  not 
sustained.  There  are  bears,  foxes,  badgers,  and  even 
deer  in  the  Haruna  jungles,  and  in  bygone  days 
there  were  plenty  of  monkeys,  but  none  are  seen 
now.  Possibly  the  dense  clothing  of  the  hills,  which 
are  swathed  from  base  to  summit  in  tussock  grass 
and  dwarf  bamboo,  forbids  the  prevalence  of  small 
life.  On  the  other  hand,  butterflies  are  numerous 
and  splendid,  a  great  black  species,  large  as  a  bat, 
with  bronze  and  green  reflections,  an  amber  and 
brown  variety,  a  saffron  and  red,  a  green  and  gold 
swallow-tail,  and  abundance  of  brimstones,  peacocks, 


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IN   THE  JAPANESE   MOUNTAINS.  469 

purple  Emperors,  and  red  Admirals.  But,  as  a  rule, 
these  foil*  vistas  are  desolate  of  that  wild  life  which 
adds  so  much  to  the  charm  of  other  Highlands. 

From  Ikao  we  descended  the  mountain  slopes  in 
a  long  line  oijinrikishas,  the  men  stripping  to  the 
hot  work,  and  disclosing  wonderful  patterns  of  blue 
and  red  tattooing  upon  their  brown,  perspiring 
bodies.  All  along  the  foot  of  these  hills  lies  the 
region  of  silk.  Every  field  is  full  of  dwarf  mulberry 
trees,  and  every  cottage  hums  with  the  silk  winding 
wheel,  while  piles  of  white  cocoons  are  spread  out 
in  the  sun  to  dry.  Next  to  the  rice  the  silk  crop  of 
Japan  is  of  chief  importance,  and  it  was  curious 
to  reflect  how  the  fine  threads  which  the  country 
mother  was  winding,  her  baby  at  her  breast,  and 
her  pipe  in  her  mouth,  would  glisten  and  "  frou 
frou  "  in  Paris  or  London,  or  New  York — the  robe 
of  some  proud  beauty  who  never  heard  of  Ikao  or 
Idzuka.  On  the  road  I  sawr  the  loveliest  lily  ever 
beheld — large  blossoms  of  the  purest  rose-colour, 
with  white  and  crimson  spangles  on  each  petal. 
The  lotus  was  also  flowering  in  many  places,  being 
cultivated  for  food,  its  bloom  very  stately  in  size 
and  shape,  and  of  pure  white  or  pink.  At  Idzuka. 
the  train  receives  us,  and  carries  us  round  the 
range  as  far  as  Yokogawa.  whence  we  ascend  the 
mountains  again  to  Karuizawa,  nearly  4000  feet 
above  the  hot  and  steaming  plains.  This  station, 
very  popular  in  the  summer  with  foreigners  and 
Japanese  alike,  sits  high  in  the  clouds  upon  a 
curious  table-land,  surrounded  by  picturesque  hills. 
One    cra-g,    called    the    Cathedral    Rock,    reallv   re- 


47o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

sembles  very  closely  the  Cathedral  of  Durham,  and 
near  it  rises  Asama  Yama,  with  steep  red  sides  and 
smoking  apex — a  still  active  volcano,  and  one  which 
everybody  ascends.  The  signs  of  its  activity  are 
everywhere ;  all  the  ground  is  covered  with  pumice 
and  ash,  and  if  a  cutting  be  made  you  can  see  how, 
at  intervals  measured  by  centuries,  the  "  Hill  of  the 
Morning  Fires "  has  covered  all  the  region  with 
black  death  and  desolation,  over  which  Nature  and 
Time  have  slowly  spread  a  growing  mantle  of  life 
and  verdure,  to  be  again  and  again  obliterated  by  an 
eruption.  A  delightful  excursion  made  here  on  foot 
was  to  Kosei,  the  glen  in  the  hills  where  a  thin  sul- 
phuretted stream  issues  from  the  dark  crags.  There 
was  a  bathing-house  and  little  yadoya  there,  but  too 
remote  to  be  prosperous,  and  the  aruji,  the  proprietor, 
offered  us  the  whole  establishment  at  a  low  price. 
The  hill-sides  were  covered  with  wild  raspberries  of 
a  delicate  flavour,  and  blue  and  white  with  the  cam- 
panula and  clematis.  We  came  down  again  to  the 
railway,  and  so  to  Tokio,  in  heavy  rain,  and  by  a 
bad  and  broken  road — but  a  kuruma  can  pass  almost 
anywhere,  and  I  am  quite  sure  immense  use  might 
be  made  of  them  in  war.  If  I  were  a  general  con- 
ducting an  Indian  campaign,  I  would  try  to  have  two 
or  three  thousand  jinrikishas  over  from  Japan.  There 
is  nothing  they  could  not  do  in  the  way  of  transport, 
wherever  two  men  can  walk  abreast,  and  where  there 
exists  any  sort  of  path  ;  and  they  can  pull  200  lbs. 
weight  for  forty  or  fifty  miles,  on  a  little  rice  and 
hot  tea — laughing  and  chattering  all  the  while. 

Karuizawa,  July  28, 1890. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

EASTERN    FORTITUDE. 

"  Korera-byo,"  as  the  Japanese  style  the  Asiatic 
cholera,  has  severely  visited  the  Southern  littoral 
of  this  Empire  during  the  present  hot  season.  We 
have  been  losing,  even  in  our  lightly-visited  capital, 
sixty  to  eighty  citizens  a  day  by  the  pest ;  but 
Tokio  has  not  suffered  nearly  so  much  as  Nagasaki 
and  Osaka.  Up  to  Saturday  last  the  complete  re- 
turns for  the  whole  country  were  21,110  cases,  and 
13,141  deaths ;  and  in  Tokio  the  figures  given 
yesterday  were,  from  Saturday  noon  to  Monday 
noon,  93  cases  and  60  deaths.  You  will  observe 
how  very  heavy  is  the  proportion  of  fatal  results 
everywhere ;  nor  do  I  find  by  the  closest  inquiry 
that  any  of  the  devoted  medical  men,  native  and 
foreign,  who  are  combating  this  scourge  have  hit 
upon  any  successful  new  treatment,  or  confirmed 
the  utility  of  the  old-established  remedies.  When 
the  attack  has  advanced  to  a  certain  stage  it  is  a 
question  of  good  nursing  and  of  natural  forces. 
But  even  among  those  who  escape  the  direct  assault 
of  the  deadly  enemy,  multitudes  succumb  to  the 
fevers  and  internal  mischiefs  which  follow  a  bad 
bout  of  the  spasms,  and  ultimately  collapse,  so  that 


472  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

the  percentage  of  deaths  is  really  very  sad,  and  I 
dare  not  believe  that  twenty  out  of  a  hundred  of 
the  victims  of  the  pest  carry  their  lives  safely  out 
of  the  peril. 

I  dwell  upon  the  dismal  topic  only  because  the 
system  pursued  by  the  Japanese  authorities  is  very 
intelligent,  courageous,  and  thorough ;  and  well 
deserves  attention.  Cholera  does  not  appear  to  be; 
endemic  in  Japan,  as  in  India  and  other  countries ; 
but  comes  over  here  every  year,  more  or  less,  from 
infected  Eastern  ports.  This  season  it  was  China 
which  exported  the  plague  to  us.  A  steamer  came 
in  from  Shanghai  with  undetected  cases  on  board  ; 
they  landed  at  Nagasaki,  and  very  soon  afterwards 
the  disease  began  to  spread,  chiefly  in  the  quarter 
of  the  city  originally  attacked.  It  is  a  long  way 
from  Nagasaki  to  Tokio — probably  600  miles ;  but 
there  runs  a  railway  for  330  miles  of  the  distance, 
and  it  is  always  pretty  certain  that  the  cholera  will 
make  its  march  over  the  intervening  space  in  about 
one  month.  Nagasaki  was  isolated,  as  far  as  was 
possible.  Ships  coming  thence  to  Yokohama  had 
to  go  into  the  quarantine  ground,  and  railway 
trains  were  inspected  and  disinfected,  often  at  con- 
siderable inconvenience  to  the  passengers.  During 
the  summer-time  there  is  an  universal  exodus  of 
foreigners  to  the  hills.  The  Legations  close1,  and 
the  diplomats  Hock  to  Ikao,  Nikko,  Karuizawa, 
Miyanoshita,  or  elsewhere ;  schools  and  colleges  are 
shut ;  and  public  officials  get  their  annual  holiday. 
All  these  eminent  and  important  persons  naturally 
hoped  that  the  cholera  would   not    come  to   Tokio 


EASTERX  FORTITUDE.  473 

and  Yokohama,  or  would  have  cleared  out  in  a  be- 
coming manner  before  they  must  return  to  duty  and 
the  lower  world.  Those  among  us  who  stuck  to  the 
great  city,  willing  to  take  our  chances  with  its 
kindly,  bright,  industrious,  and  patient  population, 
issued  decrees  to  the  cook-house  to  boil  the  water 
and  the  milk,  and  see  that  the  fish  was  fresh  and 
the  rice  sweet.  Cholera  was  sure  to  come,  and  did 
very  soon  arrive,  in  its  usual  mysterious  fashion. 

There  was  a  Turkish  frigate  in  the  bay  of  Yoko- 
hama called  the  Ertogroul.  She  had  brought  over 
to  Japan  the  Grand  Star  of  the  Medjidieh  for  the 
Emperor  of  Japan ;  and  Osman  Pasha,  the  Admiral 
in  command,  a  most  accomplished  and  charming 
gentleman,  had  been  received  with  high  honours 
at  the  Shiro,  and  was  already  very  popular  in  our 
society.  I  was  one  day  on  board  his  ship,  in  company 
with  the  United  States  Admiral,  and  while  drinking 
the  superb  coffee  and  delicate  rose-water  sherbet 
which  the  Pasha's  hospitality  proffered,  noticed  a 
verse  in  Arabic  from  the  "  Sura  of  the  Kingdom  " 
to  the  effect  that  "  Whom  He  will  He  slayeth,  and 
whom  He  will  He  doth  save  alive."  Next  day  the 
verse  found  grim  illustration.  The  Ertogroul  got 
first  one  case  of  cholera,  then  seven,  then  sixteen  ; 
and  had  to  go  out  to  sea  to  drop  overboard  in  deep 
water  those  "who  had  attained  the  mercy  of  Allah." 
Then  Yokohama  caught  it  badly,  and  Tokio  began 
to  suffer,  ever  since  when  we  have  had  a  steady 
record  of  attacks  and  deaths,  a  true  and  severe 
visitation  of  the  hateful  malady,  which,  speaking  as 
an  outsider,  and  from  Indian  experience,  would  surely 


474  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

have  swelled  to  something  terrible  but  for  the  per- 
fectly cool,  fearless,  practical,  and  enlightened  way 
in  which  the  Japanese  authorities  do  battle  with  the 
dreaded  foe. 

Their  central  idea  is  to  isolate  every  case  as  it 
occurs,  and,  the  police  being  pretty  well  omnipotent, 
this  is  not  so  difficult  here  as  it  would  prove  else- 
where. At  the  approach  of  the  enemy  the  executive 
and  civil  authorities  laid  their  heads  together,  got 
hospitals  ready,  apj)ointed  medical  and  administra- 
tive staffs,  decided  on  the  methods  to  be  adopted  as 
to  disinfectants,  conveyance  of  patients,  isolation  of 
relatives  and  houses,  and  disposal  of  corpses,  and 
then  issued  clear  instructions  in  every  hen  and  cfio. 
When  the  foe  was  upon  us  they  made  an  excellent 
beginning  by  severely  punishing  two  medical  men 
who  concealed  cases  of  cholera.  Rich  .and  poor 
people  alike  naturally  hate  to  be  "  spotted,"  cut 
off,  carried  to  the  hospital,  and  buried  with  scanty 
ceremony  after  demise ;  so  the  rich  will  pay  for 
concealment  and  the  poor  will  implore  it.  Our 
Tokio  municipality  nipped  that  in  the  bud  by 
swingeing  penalties  on  the  unfaithful  practitioners, 
and  long  terms  of  imprisonment ;  after  which  the 
danger  rather  was  that  zealous  doctors  would  call 
every  casual  stomach-ache — resulting  from  too  much 
boiled  lotus-stem  or  unboiled  fish — "  cholera."  For, 
once  declared,  a  policeman  in  blue  or  green  spec- 
tacles and  a  sword  comes  to  the  door,  makes  solemn 
notes  of  all  particulars,  orders  the  kago,  and  off  the 
patient  must  go  to  the  sheds,  where  seventy  die  out 
of  the  hundred ;  unless  the  domestic  arrangements 


EASTERN  FORTITUDE.  475 

are  such  that  there  can  be  surety  of  isolation,  under 
strict  surveillance.  Now,  the  hospital  is  naturally 
dreaded.  Many  Japanese  women,  and  even  men — 
with  their  sensitive  natures — die  actually  and  posi- 
tively from  the  depressing  fact  of  being  there — good 
as  the  treatment  is,  kindly  and  brave  the  nursing, 
and  fearless  and  devoted  the  medical  assistance.  In 
consequence,  the  poor  people  will  not  proclaim  to 
the  doctors  the  beginning  of  their  attack.  They 
allow  the  insidious  preliminary  symptoms  to  go  on, 
hoping  to  pull  through.  It  is  to  this,  I  think,  that 
the  excessive  mortality  revealed  in  our  present  re- 
turns must  be  attributed ;  to  the  delay  in  confessing 
to  an  attack,  universally  practised  by  the  poor,  which 
gives  medical  science  too  little  opportunity  of  action. 
The  type  of  cholera  commonest  among  us  is  not  the 
worst,  or  else  the  cholera  hospitals  seem  especially 
quiet  and  painless,  because  of  the  extreme  gentle- 
ness and  resignation  of  the  Japanese  character. 
You  would  not  know  if  you  passed  through  the 
day's  quota  of  cases  that  seventy  per  cent,  of  those 
amenable,  placid,  suffering  people  are  already  as 
good  as  dead  ;  and  in  the  convalescent  ward  you 
would  hardly  believe  that  the  smiling,  grateful,  con- 
tented, but  sadly  worn  and  tortured  faces  have  come 
out  of  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow.  I  gathered  that 
everything  had  been  tried.  Hypodermic  injection  of 
morphia  is  useful  at  the  beginning,  and  afterwards 
good  nursing,  chafing,  chloroform,  if  the  heart  will 
bear  it.  As  much  drink  as  they  like,  contrary  to 
the  old  treatment.  At  best  a  sad  place,  the  cholera 
hospital  is  rendered  noble  and  tolerable  only  by  the 


476  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

high  courage  of  the  nurses  and  doctors,  the  helpful- 
ness of  man  to  man  under  darkest  circumstances, 
and  the  pretty  self-respecting  way  in  which  my 
Japanese  fellow-citizens — men,  women,  and  children 
— know  how  to  die. 

During  the  present  visitation,  and  under  this 
Japanese  system,  we  see  curious  sights.  A  small 
ring  of  people  will  be  collected  round  a  poor  fellow 
lying  on  the  ground,  who  has  been  attacked.  Inside 
the  ring  the  policeman,  in  white  clothes,  his  sword 
under  his  arm,  note-book  in  hand,  and  spectacles  on 
his  nose,  takes  down  with  unbroken  calm  the  neces- 
sary particulars  demanded  by  Government.  Not 
until  all  is  known  about  name,  residence,  business, 
and  relatives,  will  the  people  with  the  stretcher  be 
allowed  to  convey  the  patient  away,  and  where  he 
lay  on  the  ground  a  pail  of  whitewash  will  be 
directly  spilled  and  spread.  An  American  doctor  of 
my  acquaintance,  seeing  a  poor  fellow  on  the  road 
in  this  plight,  had  ample  time  to  ride  home,  fetch 
restoratives  and  medicines,  and  return  to  the  spot 
before  the  police-officer  had  completed  the  elaborate 
particulars  which  he  was  entering  in  hiragana  ujwn 
his  note-book.  At  another  time,  in  passing  down 
Kyobashi,  or  threading  the  back  lanes  of  Kojimachi, 
jour  jinrikisha-iasm  will  give  a  sudden  little  nervous 
twist  of  the  shafts  to  the  kiiruma,  which  you  per- 
ceive has  been  done  in  order  to  avoid  that  one 
little  tenement  in  the  street  with  the  shoji  and 
mado  all  flung  wide  open.  The  grim  and  dismal 
visitant,  the  "  Korera-byo,"  has  made  his  call  there, 
though  why  he  should  come  to  the  basket-maker's 


EASTERN  FORTITUDE.  477 

midway  between  the  toy-shop  and  the  bakehouse, 
where  they  make  the  little  green  and  purple  cakes, 
is  a  mystery  not  to  be  solved.  You  look  right 
through  the  house,  for  everything  has  been  thrown 
open  to  the  winds  and  rains  of  heaven.  Mats, 
walls,  and  shutters  have  been  plentifully  and  uncom- 
fortably lime- washed,  and  in  their  ruined  and  deso- 
late home  are  patiently  seated  a  women  and  baby 
and  a  small  boy  who  must  not  emerge  till  their 
quarantine  is  complete.  Outside  the  house  a  little 
square  space  of  ground  is  also  lime-washed,  in  the 
midst  of  which  sits  the  inevitable  policeman  in  white 
uniform  with  sword  and  blue  spectacles,  leaning  back 
in  his  chair  and  reading  the  "  Xichi  Nichi  Shimbun  " 
or  the  "  Yugata."  Anybody  wishing  to  enter  the 
premises  would  be  accosted,  and  rqmlsed  by  him 
with  extreme  politeness,  and,  if  politeness  failed, 
with  the  edge  or  point  of  the  big  sword  laid  across 
his  knees.  Japanese  methods  admit  no  interference 
or  nonsense  of  any  kind ;  and  I  believe  it  is  entirely 
due  to  this  rigid  system  that  the  cholera  has  passed 
from  individual  to  individual  without  any  great 
leaps  and  bounds,  and  that  the  daily  returns  are 
now  happily  declining.  Moreover,  the  hot  weather 
is  coming  to  an  end.  Constant  and  heavy  showers 
of  rain  have  flushed  all  the  open  drains  and  ditches ; 
rice  is  cheaper,  and  the  rice-fields  promise  splendidly  ; 
so  that,  if  no  recrudescence  of  the  dreadful  plague 
should  befall  us,  it  looks  as  if  Japan  may  be  quit  this 
year  of  the  penalty  of  her  neighbourhood  to  China 
with  a  death-tribute  of  not  more  than  20,000  lives. 
But  among  them  what  patient,  hard-working  fathers, 


478  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

what  gentle  wives  and  mothers,  what  pretty  little 
children !  How  long  will  science  allow  the  cholera- 
bacillus  to  kill  us  in  this  stupid  and  unlovely  manner? 
I  may  add  that  the  custom  of  perpetual  tea- 
drinking  greatly  helps  the  Japanese  in  such  a  season 
as  this.  When  they  are  thirsty  they  go  to  the  tea- 
pot, and  the  boiled  water  makes  them  pretty  safe 
against  the  perils  of  the  neighbouring  well.  There 
is  beside  a  general  and  widespread  intelligence  as 
to  the  advantage  of  boiling  water  and  milk,  and 
dipping  vegetables  and  fruit  in  boiling  water,  though 
I  am  afraid  a  large  majority  believes  still  more 
implicitly  in  the  virtue  of  the  bit  of  paper  with  a 
charm  in  Chinese  which  they  buy  from  the  priest 
at  the  temple,  or  in  the  occasional  swallowing  of 
a  small  picture  of  the  Buddha  upon  tissue  paper. 
As  usual,  the  worst  ravages  of  the  malady  have 
been  among  the  poor  and  ill-fed,  and  the  pest  has 
thus  far  almost  entirely  spared  resident  Europeans. 
Another  point  in  favour  of  the  Japanese  is  their 
natural  freedom  from  panic.  Fear,  in  any  form,  is 
not  a  vice  of  this  high-tempered  and  admirable 
population,  whose  religion  has  never  taught  them 
to  dread  the  inevitable.  At  no  time  has  there  been 
the  slightest  difficulty  in  procuring  nurses,  bearers, 
and  people  to  disinfect  and  carry  away  corpses ;  in 
fact,  the  service  seems  rather  popular.  I  think  I 
have  never  seen  a  severe  and  cruel  visitation  of 
cholera  met  with  a  finer  equanimity  among  a  poor 
community,  or  a  greater  intelligence  and  better 
resolution  on  the  part  of  a  Government. 

Azabu,  Sept.  17,  1890. 


CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

AN  AFTERNOON  WITH  THE  MIKADO. 

The  year  in  this  our  Japanese  capital  brings  round 
no  anniversary  more  notable  or  more  eagerly  expected 
by  the  "  Upper  Ten  "  of  Tokio  than  the  Garden 
Party  of  the  Emperor,  which  is  held  on  or  about 
the  12th  of  every  November,  in  the  spacious 
demesnes  of  one  of  the  Royal  Palaces  at  Asakusa. 
His  Majesty  does  not  often  appear  in  public,  for  the 
traditions  of  the  old  days  when  the  Mikado  lived  as 
invisible  and  almost  as  much  venerated  as  a  god, 
are  still  strong,  although  Japan  is  by  this  time  in 
her  twenty-fourth  year  of  Meiji,  the  Great  Restora- 
tion. It  is,  indeed,  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century 
since  0  Juhin,  the  "political  earthquake,"  broke 
up  the  foundations  of  society  in  Dai  Nippon, 
abolished  the  Shogunate,  gave  back  to  the  throne 
of  Japan  reality  and  majesty,  and  transformed  the 
nation,  almost  by  magic,  from  an  Asiatic  oligarchy 
to  a  Power  modelled  on  the  latest  European  systems. 
The  Emperor  represents,  and  is  contemporaneous 
with,  this  immense  and  unprecedented  revolution  ; 
but,  resolutely  and  loyally  as  he  accepts  and  per- 
forms all  his  imperial  and  constitutional  duties,  the 
influence  of  the   vast,   the  almost   interminable  and 


480  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

immemorial  part  of  his  dynasty  is  naturally  strong 
upon  him,  and  he  passes  most  of  his  days  in  the 
stately  seclusion  of  his  palace  gardens  at  Nagata-Cho, 
or  some  other  imperial  abode.  All  the  more  eagerly 
is  any  occasion  welcomed,  such  as  the  annual 
garden  party,  when  he  mixes  quite  freely  with  a 
large  concourse  of  his  devoted  subjects,  together 
with  the  diplomats  and  representative  ladies  and 
gentlemen  of  the  foreign  community  in  Tokio  and 
Yokohama.  It  is  the  Festival  of  the  Chrysanthemum 
which  brings  with  it  so  happy  an  innovation,  for  at 
this  time  of  year  the  flower  par  excellence  of  Japan, 
the  national  Kiku,  is  everywhere  in  glowing  and 
glorious  bloom,  and  the  ostensible  reason  for  the 
gathering  in  the  Asakusa  Palace  Gardens  is  there- 
fore to  view  the  innumerable  and  splendid  specimens 
of  this  special  plant  of  Nippon  which  the  skilful 
gardeners  of  the  Court  have  reared  during  the 
year  past.  Everywhere  are  now  chrysanthemum 
shows  and  chrysanthemum  parties,  and  while  private 
gardens  are  embellished  with  choice  displays  in  all 
sorts  of  colours,  the  hillsides  and  lanes  are  also  full 
of  the.  more  modest  and  quiet  wild  blooms  of  the 
same  imperial  plant,  which  grows  everywhere,  and 
is  everywhere,  even  in  the  simplest  specimens,  bright 
and  pretty.  In  one  quarter  of  the  capital,  may, 
indeed,  be  seen  at  present  an  exhibition  of  all  the 
principal  events  in  Japanese  history  and  mythology 
worked  out  in  chrysanthemums  of  every  imaginable 
hue.  The  plants  are  made  to  grow  to  the  shape 
of  the  figures  to  be  represented,  and  then  nicely 
trimmed,  so    as   to    let   the  flowers  compose  almost 


AN  AFTERNOON  WITH  THE   MIKADO.     481 

entirely  the  colours  and  outlines  of  the  costume.  A 
suitable  mask  is  added,  with  foot-gear,  arms,  equip- 
ments, and  accessories;  and  thousands  of  citizens 
flock  forth  to  study  the  pages  of  their  national 
annals  and  religious  traditions  done  thus  to  the 
vegetable  life  in  the  national  blossom. 

Of  course,  the  Imperial  gardeners  showed  samples 
of  the  Kiku,  which  were  well  worth  the  study  and 
admiration  of  all  florists  and  botanists,  if  attention 
could  have  been  devoted  to  them.  There  is  nothing 
to  be  seen  at  your  own  Temple  Gardens,  or  at  any 
other  centre  of  the  cultivation  of  the  "golden- 
bloom  "  in  England,  to  compare  with  the  really 
marvellous  developments  of  the  Kiku,  under  Japa- 
nese hands.  Ranging  through  an  endless  number 
of  colours,  and  displaying  all  forms  and  fashions  of 
structure,  the  beautiful  plant  shows  in  one  place  a 
cluster  of  close  and  compact  stars  of  varying  hues, 
in  all  the  tones  and  tints  of  white,  yellow,  russet, 
amber,  purple,  and  cream  ;  and  in  another  fantastic 
and  dishevelled  yet  wildly  symmetrical  blooms,  the 
petals  flung  abroad  from  the  corolla  in  beautiful 
profusion  of  scattered  loveliness  and  glory  ;  some  as 
if  of  shot-silk  or  satin  ;  some  revealing  a  sober  lining 
splendidly  contrasted  with  the  brilliant  upper  sur- 
face; some  in  tangled  delicacies  of  one  and  the  same 
rich  tint — the  sum-total  of  their  blossoms  proudly 
recorded  on  wooden  tablets,  which  also  bear  the 
highly  fanciful  and  poetical  titles  allotted  to  their 
productions  by  the  Imperial  uckcya.  "  Fountain  of 
milk,"  "White  bird  of  the  moonlight,"  "Golden 
glory  of  the    hill,"    "Star    of    six    hundred    rays," 

j>4 


482 


SEAS   AND  LANDS. 


"  Nightingale's  delight/'  "  Rising  Sun,"  "  Splendour 
of  Japan,"  "  Queen's  fingers,"  "  Golden  Throne- 
studs,"  "  Stork's  crest,"  and  "  Winglet  of  wild  duck," 
were  among  these  imaginative  appellations ;  but  the 
graceful  and  nodding  beauties  which  bore  them 
had  to  put  up  with  much  neglect  on  this  occasion, 


INVITATION   TO  THE   EMPEROR'S   GARDEN   PARTY. 

because,  if — as  it  presently  turned  out — Majesty  kept 
its  word,  and  put  in  an  appearance,  everybody  must 
be  on  the  spot  at  the  moment  of  the  Royal  approach. 
Accordingly  we  are  all  grouped  together,  with  our 
backs  to  the  beauties  of  the  parterre,  in  a  mass  of 
some  five  or  six  hundred  people  who  have  been 
honoured  with  the  great  square  cards  of  invitation 
to  this  high  function.  The  Royal  card,  printed  in 
gold,  enjoins  all  alike  to  wear  frock-coats  ("  frokko 
cotto  ")  and  silk  hats  ;  and   thus  we  all  look   more 


AN  AFTERNOON  WITH  THE   MIKADO.    483 

or  less  alike — diplomats,  generals,  naval  officers, 
ministers,  and  private  persons — diversified  only  by 
the  Corean  officials  in  long  robes  of  white,  and 
Puritan  hats  with  amber  strings,  and  the  ever  grace- 
ful costume  of  some  Japanese  ladies  present,  who 
have  proved  faithful — even  against  Court  fashion — 
to  kimono  and  obi.  The  scene  is  a  vast  garden,  so 
full  of  winding  walks,  hillocks  covered  with  large 
trees  and  thickets  of  bamboo,  pools,  bridges,  little 
temples,  and  cascades,  that  you  might  believe  your- 
self deep  in  the  Japanese  country,  instead  of  being 
in  the  heart  of  this  great  city  with  its  thirteen 
hundred  thousand  inhabitants.  The  throng  of  polite 
and  fashionable  folk,  which  has  broken  up  into 
knots,  conversing  in  Japanese  and  almost  all  the 
other  known  tongues,  suddenly  falls  to  "  Attention," 
for  the  strains  of  the  National  Anthem  of  Dai  Nippon 
sounds  from  the  gaily-garbed  band.  "  The  Emperor 
is  Coming  !"  The  Ministers  of  the  Cabinet  and  the 
foreign  representatives  take  up  a  more  or  less  orderly 
position  to  the  right ;  others  arrange  themselves  on 
the  left-hand  side.  We  make  a  long  and  wide  lane 
for  the  Imperial  party,  which  now  draws  nigh, 
walking  from  a  kiosk  in  the  gardens  to  the  refresh- 
ment tents  beyond  the  flower-sheds. 

His  Imperial  Majesty  comes  first,  and  all  alone  ! 
I  have  often  seen  him,  and  always  find  the  same 
difficulty  in  analysing  my  own  impressions,  or 
conveying  them,  as  to  that  impassive,  reserved, 
changeless,  dark,  far-removed  countenance.  I  have 
seen  it  all  day  long  in  the  smoke  of  the  mimic 
battles  at  NagO)Ta,  and  all  night  long  in  the  festal 


484  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

halls  at  the  Shiro,  and  at  receptions  and  Court 
ceremonies ;  but  I  never  witnessed  the  slightest 
alteration  of  its  fixed  immobile  features.  Only  a 
flatterer  could  call  the  proud,  cold  face  handsome, 
and  only  an  enemy  or  a  soshi  would,  I  think,  style 
its  austere  constraint  and  lofty  discontent  ill-looking. 
It  is  a  typical  Japanese  man's  face,  in  many  points. 
You  shall  see  a  thousand  such  in  a  week's  travelling 
hereabouts,  but  this  one  stands  apart  in  character 
as  in  elevation,  touched  in  its  most  ordinary  lines 
and  lineaments  with  an  almost  marble  reticence  and 
an  ironclad  refusal  to  be  common,  even  if  Nature  has 
stamped  it  common,  in  so  much  that  the  slightest 
bend  of  the  brow  in  salutation  appears  to  be  the 
result  of  a  superhuman  effort  of  reluctant  will.  One 
would  say  this  is  a  Mikado  of  the  past,  who  is 
obliged  to  belong  to  and  to  bow  before  the  too- 
prevailing  present,  but  who  nevertheless  keeps  his 
secret  soul  apart  in  the  stern  and  great  society  of 
his  ancestors,  and  "  with  the  far-off  company  of 
antique  Shinto  gods."  He  walks  between  us  alone  ; 
his  arm  too  sacred,  too  separate,  to  be  taken  in 
public  even  by  the  Empress,  who  comes  behind,  a. 
small,  exquisitely-graceful  lady  dressed  in  a  mauve 
satin  toilette  of  Parisian  style,  and  mauve  bonnet, 
with  parasol  to  match,  all  borne  with  the  utmost 
charm  and  becomingness.  Behind  her  Imperial 
Majesty,  also  passing  singly,  a  bevy  of  ladies  of  the 
Court,  all  but  one  in  European  dress ;  and  following 
the  ladies,  the  gentlemen  of  the  palace,  in  black 
frock-coats  and  tall  hats.  His  Majesty  wears  the  un- 
dress uniform  of  a  general — cherry-coloured  trousers 


AN  AFTERNOON   WITH   THE   MIKADO.     485 

and  black  frogged  coat  braided  with  gold  lace,  and 
on  the  small,  close-cut  brows  a  kepi  of  scarlet  with  ■ 
gold  band.  His  bow,  in  recognition  of  all  our  bare 
and  bended  heads,  is  the  slightest  possible  inclination 
which  rigid  muscles  can  make,  yet  withal  accom- 
panied by  a  glance,  kindly,  benign,  and  full  of  evident 
goodwill,  for  his  lips  almost  smile,  his  eyes  are  alert 
and  lighted,  his  air  is,  one  might  almost  dare  to  say, 
genial ;  and  these  nods  of  the  Japanese  Jove  must  be 
measured  by  loyalty  with  a  micrometer.  Moreover, 
when  we  pass  into  the  refreshment  tent,  and  the 
Emperor  and  Empress  take  their  seats,  the  etiquette 
observed  around  is  b}7  no  means  stiff.  We  may 
approach  the  royal  table  and  speak  with  friends 
there  sitting  close  to  the  Majesty  of  Japan  ;  nay, 
when  champagne  has  been  quaffed  and  mayonnaise 
of  lobster  or  chicken  tasted,  the  Emperor  endures 
very  humanly  to  have  personage  after  personage 
presented  to  him,  and  addresses  to  some  of  them — 
to  the  writer  of  these  notes  among  many  that  were 
more  worthy — some  gracious  and  friendly  words  in 
the  soft  Japanese,  which  he  always  speaks.  The 
ladies  of  the  court  and  the  gentlemen  mingle  mean- 
while with  the  throng,  and  chat,  sans  ccrcmonie, 
with  friends  therein.  We  enjoy  the  honour  of 
acquaintance  with  one  of  the  ladies  in  waiting, 
who  tells  us  pleasing  stories  of  the'  goodness  and 
grace  of  her  Imperial  Majesty,  and  when  we  regret 
that  Japanese  dress  seems  discarded,  invites  us  to 
come  and  inspect  the  splendid  kimono,  obi,  and 
kanzashi  which  the  palace  wardrobes  contain.  Soon 
the  procession    of  departure   is  re-formed,  and  the 


486  SEAS    AND     LANDS. 

Imperial  party  returns,  the  Empress  again  follow- 
ing the  Emperor,  while  the  plaintive  strains  of  the 
National  hymn  are  once  more  heard,  and  we  saunter 
out  of  the  palace  gardens,  between  files  of  bowing 
servitors  and  police,  into  a  great  crowd  of  Japanese 
citizens  eagerly  waiting  at  the  guarded  gates  to 
catch  but  a  glimpse  of  the  gold  chrysanthemums  on 
the  panels  of  the  carriage  which  conveys  their  well- 
beloved  and  deeply-venerated  Sovereign  Lord. 

The  Potentate  with  whom  we  have  thus  passed 
so  easy  and  informal  an  afternoon  in  the  groves  of 
Asakusa — first  of  his  line  visible  to  ordinary  eyes  in 
such  a  manner — is  named  Mutsuhito,  and  was  born 
at  the  ancient  capital  of  Kyoto  on  Nov.  3,  1852 — 
being,  therefore,  thirty-nine  years  old.  He  is  the 
second  son  of  the  late  Emperor  Komei  and  of  the 
Empress  Fujiwara  Asako.  He  succeeded  to  the 
throne  in  February,  1866,  but  was  not  crowned  until 
October  12,  1868,  after  the  troublous  times  of  the 
Great  Revolution,  which  he  now  represents,  had 
quieted  down.  The  gracious  lady  his  consort,  in 
the  mauve  robe  from  Paris,  with  the  black  hair 
banded  so  demurely  over  her  small  dark  forehead,  is 
Haruko,  Empress  of  Japan,  third  daughter  of  Ichijo 
Tadaka,  a  noble  of  the  first  rank.  Her  Imperial 
Majesty  was  born  on  May  28,  1850,  and  is  therefore 
slightly  older  than  her  august  spouse.  The  one 
and  only  babe  whom  she  bore  to  Mutsuhito — a 
prince — died  before  he  had  well  drawn  breath ; 
but  his  Majesty,  following  the  custom  of  his 
ancestors,  had  fairly  assured  the  succession  with 
children  born  to  him  by  the  various  Princesses  who 


AN  AFTERNOON    WITH    THE    MIKADO.     487 

also  share  his  royal  affections.  The  Prince  Yoshihito, 
son  of  the  Lady  Yanagiwara,  is  thus  heir-apparent, 
and  has  for  half-sisters  the  Princess  Shigeko,  daughter 
of  the  Lady  Ume-no-Miya,  and  the  Princess  Fusako, 
baby  child  of  the  Lady  Sono.  Deprived  thus  far  of 
the  glory  of  seeing  her  own  offspring  inheritor  of  the 
antique  splendours  of  the  Mikadoship,  her  Majesty 
the  Empress  relaxes  nothing  of  her  devotion  to  her 
lord  and  to  his  land  and  subjects.  A  true  Japa- 
nese woman  in  that  almost  divine  self-abnegation, 
patience,  and  dutifulness  which  are  the  common 
qualities  of  the  gentle  daughters  of  the  land,  she  is 
a  veritable  Mother  of  her  Nation,  never  wearied  of 
good  works,  and  foremost  in  encouraging  all  wise 
social  reforms.  Her  hand  as  well  as  that  of  the 
Emperor  is  always  stretched  forth  to  help  in 
times  of  calamity,  or  famine,  or  pestilence,  such  as 
Japan  has  unhappily  passed  through  of  late.  Small 
in  stature,  even  for  a  Japanese  woman,  she  contrasts 
all  the  more  strongly  with  her  Imperial  husband, 
who  is  taller  than  the  majority  of  his  lieges.  He 
has  had  the  genius,  or  good  fortune  to  know  how 
to  reconcile  in  his  person  the  old  times  and  the 
new,  preserving  with  high  propriety  the  reserve 
and  distance  of  his  ancestral  prototypes — who,  even 
while  they  where  the  puppets  of  the  Shogunate, 
ranked  well-nigh  as  gods  in  the  estimation  of  the 
Japanese  people — but  accepting  and  faithfully  dis- 
charging the  duties  of  a  constitutional  monarch,  and 
taking  an  active  and  intelligent  part  in  the  affairs 
of  his  empire,  particularly  in  all  that  relates  to  the 


SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

army  and  navy.  His  Majesty  is  full  of  trust  in  the 
future  greatness  of  Japan,  and  proud  of  her  ancient 
glories.  Some  Japanese  gentleman  of  high  family 
brought  lately  to  my  house  in  Azabu  a  long  scroll 
of  silk  and  birdskin,  whereon  was  painted  the 
invasion  of  Japan  by  Kublai  Khan.  The  scroll 
measured  more  than  50  feet  in  length,  and  was 
mounted  richly  with  gold  and  crystals.  Documents 
accompanying  it,  and  the  antique  lettering  of  the 
pictures,  confirmed  the  statement  that  it  had  reposed 
in  the  keeping  of  the  same  family  since  1280  a.d., 
the  date  of  its  execution — the  invasion  having  taken 
place  in  1259  a.d.  Nothing  could  be  more  interest- 
ing than  thus  to  study  an  almost  contemporaneous 
illustration  of  the  "  Armada  "  of  Japanese  annals, 
when  the  theretofore  invincible  Kublai  flung  on  the 
coasts  of  Dai  Nippon  an  armed  host  of  150,000  men 
in  innumerable  ships  and  boats,  only  to  see  them 
shattered  by  the  brave  Japanese  soldiers  and  scattered 
by  tempests,  hundreds  of  his  warriors  being  captured 
and  beheaded  on  the  slopes  of  Fuji  San.  The 
scroll  represented  all  this  stirring  story  in  vivid 
colours,  and  with  singular  precision  and  beauty  of 
detail.  The  owners  needed  money,  and  offered  me 
the  treasure  at  my  own  price,  but  I  told  them  it  was 
the  counterpart  of  our  own  Bayeux  tapestry,  and 
ought  never  to  leave  the  country.  I  sent  them, 
therefore,  to  the  Palace  with  a  recommendatory 
letter  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Emperor,  and  as  soon 
as  his  Majesty  inspected  the  ancient  and  deeply 
interesting  monument,  he  ordered  that  it  should  be 


AN  AFTERNOON   WITH   THE   MIKADO.    4S9 

carefully  kept,  along  with  a  silken  banner  of  the 
Tartar  Admiral  accompanying  it,  in  the  Royal 
Archives ;  and  gave  a  handsome  price  to  the  de- 
lighted owners. 

Tokio,  November  14,  1890. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

THE    FIEST    ASIATIC    PARLIAMENT. 

I  have  just  returned  from  witnessing  the  most 
interesting  and  important  spectacle  in  the  modern 
history  of  Japan.  I  have  seen  the  birth  of  a  new 
Parliament,  the  only  assembly  of  the  kind  known 
to  the  Continent  of  Asia,  modelled  upon  European 
systems,  traditions,  and  precedents,  and  meeting  for 
its  very  first  visible  embodiment,  with  all  constitu- 
tional forms  and  ceremonies,  under  the  imperial 
patronage  and  presence  of  the  Mikado,  lately  a 
sovereign  so  removed  from  mortal  sight  and  spheres 
as  to  be  almost  regarded  as  a  deity,  but  to-day 
viewed  discharging  the  duties  of  a  Constitutional 
Monarch,  with  his  Peers,  his  faithful  Commons, 
and  his  Ministers  of  State  around  him.  Conceive 
the  prodigious  imjoort  of  such  an  event !  However 
it  may  develop,  and  whatever  may  be  the  results 
to  Dai  Nippon  and  to  Asia  at  large  from  this 
stupendous  innovation,  it  is  at  least  to  the  immortal 
glory  of  Japan  that  she  of  all  Oriental  nations  has 
been  the  earliest  to  range  herself  under  the  banner 
of  organised  freedom,  of  public  liberty,  and  legisla- 
tion guaranteed  by  free  institutions.  Great  Britain 
especially,   "the    august   Mother    of    Parliaments, " 


THE   FIRST  ASIATIC  PARLIAMENT.         491 

cannot  but  look  with  glad  and  friendly  eyes  on 
this,  the  latest  and  most  earnest  of  her  imitators, 
for  which  reason  I  will  describe  at  some  length 
and  with  minuteness  how  the  First  Parliament  of 
the  Emjnre  of  Japan  was  to-day  opened  by  His 
Majesty  the  Emperor  in  person,  before  the  two 
Houses,  and  in  presence  of  all  the  great  officers  of 
State,  the  Court  dignitaries,  the  foreign  diplomats, 
and  the  few  unofficial  foreigners  privileged  to  behold 
the  novel  and  profoundly  interesting  ceremony. 

This  immense  event  has  not  come  at  a  bound, 
for  then  we  might  justly  regard  it  as  precipitate 
and  doomed  to  failure.  The  Government  and  the 
nation  have  been  educating  themselves  up  to  so 
high  a  point  of  progress  ever  since  the  opening  of 
the  Meiji  era,  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  Then 
the  power  of  the  Shogunate  fell ;  authority  was 
stripped  from  those  proud  and  despotic  lords  who 
had  kept  the  Mikado  in  seclusion  like  a  gilded 
idol.  The  Emperor  of  Japan  resumed  the  active, 
as  well  as  sacred,  authority  descended  from  a  long 
line  of  ancestors,  but  filched  from  them  and  him 
by  splendid  usurpers  of  the  pattern  of  those  buried 
like  kings  in  Shiba  and  Xikko.  The  last  of  the 
Shoguns  resigned  in  18(>7,  and  the  first  attempt 
at  a  General  Council  was  made,  after  the  imperial 
oath  in  1868,  that  Japan  should  have  representative 
institutions,  by  calling  together  three  Samurai  from 
each  clan.  They  met  at  Kioto  under  the  name  of 
Gi  In,  or  Parliament,  and  afterwards  in  Tokio  with 
the  appellation  of  Shiugi  In,  or  Assembly  of  Com- 
moners;   but    accomplished    nothing,    and,    indeed, 


492  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

had  not  in  them  any  spirit  of  reform.  For  example, 
they  rejected  the  proposals  to  abolish  hara-kiri  and 
the  carrying  of  swords  in  public,  by  200  to  9  and 
by  213  votes  to  1  respectively.  And  now  both  are 
abolished.  The  Shiugi  In  was  quietly  dissolved, 
and  its  place  taken  in  1871  by  the  Sa  In,  or  Senate, 
whose  members  were  appointed  by  the  Prime 
Minister.  This  was,  of  course,  not  representation 
at  all,  nor  was  the  later  body  of  1875,  the  Genro  In, 
much  of  an  advance  upon  the  first  Senate  in  that 
or  any  other  respect ;  but  the  Chihoivan  Kwaiji, 
or  "  Assembly  of  Local  Officials,"  marked  a  clear 
advance. 

The  Kwaiji  met  in  July,  1875,  at  the  Hongwanji 
(a  temple),  and  was  hailed  as  a  decisive  token  that 
the  promise  of  1868  was  in  process  of  fulfilment. 
It  consisted,  of  course,  of  appointed  officials  only, 
but  the  Government  treated  it  as  the  mouthpiece  of 
the  people,  and  undoubtedly  regarded  the  method 
of  selection  of  its  members  as  only  temporary.  An 
imperial  speech  opened  the  session,  and  the  able 
Kido  (the  "  brain  and  pen  "  of  the  Restoration)  was 
appointed  Gl-cJio  (President).  There  were  seventy 
delegates,  who  were  either  governors  or  their  deputies. 
Yet  the  results  of  this  first  session  were  not  at  all 
promising.  The  Assembly  occupied  most  of  its 
time  in  discussing  a  system  of  roads  and  bridges 
laid  before  it  by  the  Government.  The  meetings 
were  not  opened  to  the  public  or  to  the  press, 
and  the  publication  of  the  debates  by  the  Govern- 
ment did  not  mitigate  the  general  dissatisfaction 
which  this  caused.     The  Assembly  itself  showed  a 


THE   FIRST  ASIATIC  PARLIAMENT.        493 

conservatism  which  did  not  tend  to  commend  it  to 
the  people.  At  the  same  time  its  influence  was 
weakened  by  contrast  with  the  action  of  some  of 
the  citizens  of  local  prominence,  who  had  been 
brought  up  to  Tokio  by  the  governors  to  assist  with 
their  advice.  These  met,  and  drew  up  a  memorial 
asking  for  an  Assembly  founded  on  popular  election. 
Finally,  on  October  12,  1881,  came  the  well-known 
decree  establishing  a  Parliament  in  1890. 

These  few  particulars  of  modern  Japanese  annals 
are  adduced  that  it  may  be  seen  how  the  nation 
has  come,  step  by  step,  if  rapidly,  to  its  present 
advanced  ideas  of  legislative  institutions.  Even  now 
there  is  a  Parliament  but  no  House  of  Parliament, 
in  the  architectural  sense  ;  for  the  ceremony  of  to-day 
was  held  in  an  entirely  provisional  building,  of  no 
external  pretensions,  and  fitted  up,  interiorly,  to 
be  useful  rather  than  ornamental.  Originally  the 
Government  contemplated  the  erection  of  some- 
what ambitious  structures  for  the  Diet.  This  project, 
however,  was  dismissed,  lack  of  time  and  desire  to 
economise  influencing  the  Government  to  give  the 
legislators  only  a  temporary  home.  The  sum  set 
aside  for  the  work,  $80,000,  necessitated  that  the 
structure  should  be  of  wood,  and  explains  the  inor- 
nate nature  of  the  edifice  standing  on  what  was 
the  Hibiya  Parade  Ground.  The  estimate  was  later 
on  trebled,  this  being  rendered  necessary  by  repeated 
changes  of  plans  and  additions,  the  upshot  appearing 
in  a  plain  substantial  edifice,  by  which  a  good  be- 
ginning may  be  made.  The  tickets  for  admission 
to  its  gateways  on   this  momentous  day  wen1  eagerly 


494  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

desired,  but  very  sparsely  given.  It  was  a  new  and 
last  proof  of  the  consideration  which  I  have  yjer- 
sonally  met  with  from  all  quarters  in  Japan,  that 
I  should  have  been  allotted,  without  expecting  the 
favour,  a  very  good  seat  in  the  gallery  of  the  central 
hall. 

Under  the  clear  pale  sky  of  the  Japanese  autumnal 
day — cold,  but  brisk  and  invigorating — Tokio  had 
turned  out  in  its  tens  of  thousands  to  see  the 
Emperor  pass  to  the  Hall  of  Legislation,  to  declare 
the  first  Parliament  opened,  and  so  make  good  the 
imperial  oath  taken  twenty-one  years  ago,  and  since 
twice  renewed.  The  entire  city  had  been  decorated 
for  this  great  day,  after  the  Japanese  manner,  with 
interminable  lines  of  the  national  banner  (a  red  sun 
on  a  white  ground)  and  lines  as  interminable  of 
paper  lanterns,  also  red  and  white.  Dense  throngs 
of  citizens,  with  their  wives  and  children,  filled 
each  side  of  the  streets  through  which  the  imperial 
carriages  would  pass,  and  blocked  even  the  side 
thoroughfares,  to  watch  the  magnates  and  officials 
proceed  to  meet  his  Imperial  Majesty ;  for  every 
road  and  alley  was  gay  with  nodding  plumes  and 
glittering  decorations  of  the  Shinnin,  Chokunin, 
and  Sonin,  dashing  along  en  grande  tenue  to  the 
point  of  interest.  Troups  in  brand-new  uniforms 
kept  the  passage  clear,  or  marched  along  to  their 
stations  with  blasts  of  bugles  to  keep  time,  for  the 
Japanese  regiments  do  not  seem  to  use  the  drum. 
The  crowds  were  alert,  excited,  and  sympathetic, 
but  orderly  and  gentle-tempered,  although  two  rather 
serious   encounters  took   place  with  the  police,  one 


THE   FIRST  ASIATIC  PARLIAMENT.        495 

at  the  gates  of  the  Russian  Legation,  and  one  in 
the  field  set  apart  for  jinrikishas.  Of  course  this 
last  named  vehicle  was  everywhere  in  requisition, 
bowling  along  with  two  kurumaya — ni-nim-biki — 
and  every  carriage  and  horse  in  the  capital  had 
also  been  brought  out.  But  the  immediate  pre- 
cincts of  the  Legislative  Palace  were  sternly  kept 
secluded.  At  certain  bridges  and  approaches  the 
policemen  in  blue  spectacles  with  their  swords 
rigorously  kept  back  all  not  provided  with  the 
necessary  papers  and  tickets,  and  for  the  most  part 
the  uplifting  of  the  steel  scabbard  across  the  path 
of  every  onrush  was  quite  enough  to  stay  any  over- 
eager  sightseers.  In  one  of  the  very  few  street 
brawls  occurring  in  Tokio,  we  saw  the  other  day 
two  ninsoku  fighting  with  bale-hooks,  blood  stream- 
ing from  the  terrible  wounds  inflicted.  Presently 
one  turned  and  fled,  pursued  with  murderous  intent 
by  his  antagonist ;  but  a  small  policeman  inter- 
vened, held  his  sword  across  the  breast  of  the 
infuriated  coolie,  who  instantly  began  to  bow,  and 
hiss,  and  pant  out  explanatory  courtesies,  begging 
permission  to  annihilate  his  foe,  but  instantly  cool- 
ing down  when  the  little  officer,  with  equal  or 
greater  politeness,  insisted  upon  objecting  to  homi- 
cide, under  any  circumstances.  This  kindly,  peace- 
ful, well-behaved  crowd  has  lost  the  summer  colour, 
which  made  the  city  so  gay.  It  is  almost  as  sombre 
and  sober  as  a  London  mob,  in  the  fuiju  no  Kimono, 
the  "garments  of  winter;"  but  the  faces  are  alight 
with  pleasure  and  pride — they  understand  the  Tcnshi 
Sama  does  a  grand  thing  for  Dai  Nippon  to-day. 


496  SEAS    AND     LANDS. 

They  have  put  a  coping-stone  on  the  swiftly-raised 
edifice  of  their  new  civilisation  ;  they,  too,  like  the 
Western  nations,  will  possess  a  Parliament,  a  Con- 
stitution, debates,  reports,  divisions,  ministries,  tout 
le  tremblement  of  high  politics.  Alas  !  these  things 
mean  trouble  as  well  as  progress.  I  sigh  as  I 
reflect  that  they  will  come  some  day  to  their  Reform 
Bills,  their  compound  householder,  their  lodger  fran- 
chise, and  election  addresses ;  and  have,  perhaps, 
their  Irish  question  and  their  all-night  sittings ! 

My  two  rikisha-men  wheel  me,  with  a  suj^erb  final 
effort,  to  the  great  entrance,  which  is  carpeted  with 
crimson,  and  thronged  with  gorgeous  official  per- 
sonages, dressed,  as  it  seems,  principally  in  cloth 
of  gold  and  golden  chrysanthemums.  These,  how- 
ever, are  merely  the  chief  attendants  of  the  legis- 
lative precincts.  It  is  but  to  cast  the  gaze  around  to 
observe  dignitaries  of  the  State,  Shinnin,  Chohunin, 
and  Sonin,  veteran  officers  of  the  army  and  navy, 
and  Court  employes,  arrayed  even  more  magnificently 
than  these  guardians  of  the  halls  and  passages  of 
Parliament.  At  the  portal  I  meet  my  excellent 
friend  Yamada  San,  Secretary  to  the  Imperial  House- 
hold, whose  companionship  removes  any  difficulties 
as  to  the  proper  staircase  and  the  allotted  seat. 
Amid  a  throng  of  gay  uniforms  and  dazzling  decora- 
tions, settling  into  their  places  like  butterflies  in  a 
flower-garden,  we  reach  the  Central  Hall,  and  find 
a  kind  of  opera-box  immediately  to  the  left  of  the 
throne  and  raised  above  it.  The  usher  mentions 
that  it  is  a  little  against  etiquette  to  sit  higher  than 
the    Emperor — but,  shigata  <ja  nai,  "  it  cannot   be 


THE   FIRST  ASIATIC  PARLIAMENT.        497 

helped  " — and  it  will  be  becoming  if  we  keep  some- 
what in  the  background  and  abstain  from  using 
opera-glasses.  The  hall  is  ample  and  commodious, 
having  a  spacious,  if  plain,  interior,  painted  white, 
grey,  and  gold,  with  a  gallery  of  handsome  boxes 
running  round  the  back,  and,  below,  an  amphitheatre 
containing  six  kusabi  gata,  or  wedge-shaped  sections 
of  seats,  each  section  having  forty  seats  and  desks. 
These  confront  a  raised  platform,  approached  by  two 
stairways  on  either  side  of  a  semi-circular  rostrum; 
and  behind  this  rises  the  throne,  a  golden  chair 
placed  on  a  dais,  carpeted  with  grey  and  gold,  the 
throne  being  canopied  with  heavy  hangings  of  crim- 
son brocaded  silk  ornamented  with  chrysanthemums. 
The  members'  seats  are  of  dark  wood,  upholstered 
in  black  leather,  but  for  to-day  both  Houses  will 
be  present  here,  the  Peers  upon  the  right  side  of  the 
throne,  the  Commons  on  the  left.  Crowning  its 
gold  and  crimson  canopy  is  a  representation  of  the 
ancient  head-dress  of  State  of  the  Mikados — some- 
thing resembling  a  Phrygian  cap  ;  and  green  silk 
cords  mark  off  a  space  on  either  hand,  where 
presently  the  Ministers  and  Court  officials  will  re- 
spectively take  their  stand.  The  central  area  of  the 
Hall  is  quite  empty  as  yet,  but  the  gallery-boxes 
are  filled,  or  filling,  with  such  a  blaze  of  gold  coats, 
epaulettes,  burnished  swords,  and  decorations  that 
the  glories  of  the  Parliament  Ushers  in  embroidered 
blue  coats,  red  breeches,  silk  stockings,  and  gold 
chrysanthemum  badges  became  paled.  Two  of  these 
approach  the  vacant  throne  with  low  bows,  and 
place  on  each  side  of  it   a   pot  of  lighted  .srnko,  or 


498  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

incense  sticks,  that  the  nose  of  Majesty  may  be 
soothed.  The  King  of  the  Loo-Choo  Islands  enters 
now  and  surveys  the  scene.  What  one  instantly 
misses  is  the  presence  of  the  fair  sex.  Not  a  woman, 
of  high  or  low  degree,  is  to  be  seen  about  the  pre- 
mises ;  even  the  chairs  in  the  box  of  the  Empress  are 
unused,  and  an  unfortunate  American  literary  lady, 
who  came  all  the  way  from  New  York  to  report  the 
event,  has  been  denied  so  much  as  an  approach  to  the 
precincts.  In  this  respect  the  first  Parliament  of  Japan 
must  be  pronounced  sadly  uncivilised ;  in  all  others 
there  is  nothing  to  be  found  fault  with  in  the  aspect 
of  the  Hall,  while  his  Imperial  Majesty  is  awaited. 
From  its  roof  hangs  an  imposing  chandelier,  gilded 
and  coloured,  with  a  galaxy  of  electric  lamps ;  and 
the  terra  cotta  walls,  the  rich  grey  and  gold  carpets, 
and  pure  white  galleries,  panels,  and  arches,  with  the 
splendid  hue  of  the  silk-draped  throne,  make  up  a 
most  pictorial  scene,  enriched  by  the  brilliant  audi- 
ence of  diplomats,  army  and  navy  officers,  courtiers, 
and  great  officials  eagerly  expecting  the  entrance  of 
the  Son  of  Heaven  and  his  newly  enrolled  councillors. 
They  come  !  There  is  heard  outside  a  fanfare  of 
military  music,  just  as  the  clock  strikes  eleven,  and 
when  this  is  ended  the  band  in  the  Parliament  court- 
yard strikes  up  the  plaintive  strains  of  the  National 
Anthem  of  Japan.  The  Emperor  has  reached  the 
building,  and  reposes  awhile  in  the  State  apartment 
— 19  tsubo  large — while  the  Peers  and  Commons 
enter  and  take  their  places.  The  Peers  of  Dai 
Nippon  are  led  to  their  seats  by  Count  Ito,  all  wear- 
ing their  coats  of  honour — deep  blue,  heavily  em- 


THE    FIRST  ASIATIC  PARLIAMENT.         499 

broidered  with  gold — and  with  the  imperial  Kiku. 
It  is  an  effect  as#of  the  plumage  of  pheasants,  or  a 
great  jeweller's  display  of  gold  and  diamonds  on 
dark  velvet,  when  these  Japanese  marquises,  counts, 
and  viscounts  settle  into  their  side  of  the  amphi- 
theatre. •  Then  follow  the  faithful  Commons,  all  to 
a  man  in  evening  costume  of  the  strictest  propriety, 
with  tall  silk  or  opera  hats.  These  are  marshalled 
to  their  places  by  Mr.  Xakashima,  the  freshly-elected 
Speaker  of  the  Lower  House,  a  gentleman  of  dis- 
tinguished appearance  and  bearing,  who  takes  his 
stand  below  the  platform  in  front  of  the  Commons, 
as  Count  Ito  posts  himself  in  front  of  the  Japanese 
Lords. 

But  the  Lord  High  Chamberlain,  the  Marquis 
Tokudaija,  has  by  this  time  informed  his  Imperial 
Majesty  that  all  is  ready  ;  and,  conducted  by  that 
great  official  and  the  other  Court  dignitaries,  the 
Mikado  enters  through  the  right  door  of  the  elevated 
platform.  At  his  side,  but  a  little  behind,  walk  the 
Princes  of  the  Blood — Prince  Komatsu  wearing  his 
Grand  Cross  of  the  Bath — and  immediately  before 
His  Majesty  paces  a  grandee  carrying  a  copy  of  the 
Constitution,  wrapped  up  in  green  silk  powdered 
with  gold  chrysanthemums.  The  Ministers  have 
taken  their  places  on  the  left  of  the  throne — there 
is  Yamagata,  the  soldierly  ;  Count  Saigo,  best  of 
kindly  hosts  and  companions;  Viscount  Aoki,  a 
statesman  of  the  first  ability  and  resource  ;  Mr.  Mutsu, 
of  the  'Department  of  Commerce,  with  many  others 
whom  it  is  a  delight  as  well  as  a  distinction  to  num- 
ber as  friends.     To  the  right  of  his  Imperial  Majesty 


5oo  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

stand  the  great  officers  of  State,  and  at  this  juncture, 
as  the  Emperor  halts  before  the  throne,  all  the 
assembly  bow  profoundly.  Ito  and  Nakashima  keep 
their  places  at  the  head  of  the  two  wedge-shaped 
phalanxes  of  gold  and  black.  The  Ministers,  the 
naval  and  military  officers,  every  person  present,  is 
reverentially  attentive — it  is  the  moment  of  the  Birth 
of  the  First  Asiatic  Parliament !  Count  Yamagata 
hands  to  the  Mikado,  with  deep  obeisance,  the  speech, 
written  in  Hiragana  ;  and,  with  clear,  decisive  tones 
— not  free,  however,  from  the  half  sing-song  of  all 
Japanese  readers,  the  Sovereign  of  Dai-Nippon  de- 
livers the  epoch-making  sentences  of  which  here  is  a 
translation  : — 

We  hereby  notify  to  the  members  of  the  House  of  Peers  and 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  that  the  leading  features  of  the 
various  systems  of  domestic  Government  We  have  promoted 
during  the  twenty  years  since  Our  ascension  to  the  Throne  are 
now  almost  completed.  We  earnestly  pray  that  We,  aided  by 
the  virtue  inherited  from  the  Imperial  Founder  of  Our  House, 
and  from  Our  other  Imperial  Ancestors,  and  with  your  co-opera- 
tion, may  unite  the  past,  brighten  the  future,  garner  the  excellent 
fruits  to  be  yielded  by  the  Constitution,  and  thereby  continue  to 
augment  the  glory  of  Our  Empire,  and  to  display  the  admirable, 
loyal,  and  brave  character  of  Our  subjects  both  at  home  and 
abroad. 

From  an  early  period  it  has  been  Our  aim  to  promote  amity 
with  all  nations,  to  widen  the  range  of  Our  foreign  commerce,  to 
strengthen  the  national  power ;  and  it  has  fortunately  happened 
that  Our  intercourse  and  intimacy  with  the  Treaty  Powers  have 
continually  increased.  With  regard  to  the  Army  and  Navy,  it  is 
Our  aim,  with  the  lapse  of  years,  to  secure  their  perfection,  in 
order  that  peace  at  home  and  with  foreign  countries  may  be  main- 
tained.    As  to  the  Budget  and  the  various  draft  laws  for  the  24th 


THE   FIRST  ASIATIC  PARLIAMENT         501 

year  of  Meiji,  Wo  order  that  the  Ministers  of  State  shall  submit 
these  for  the  discussion  of  the  Diet.  We  anticipate  that  you  will 
impartially  and  prudently  discuss  and  support  these  intentions, 
and  that  you  will  set  a  worthy  precedent  for  the  future. 

The  Emperor  is  dressed  in  the  uniform  of  a 
Generalissimo  of  the  army,  and  wears  the  broad 
red  Dai-gusho  ribbon  of  the  Order  of  the  Rising 
Sun  as  his  principal  decoration.  Tall,  in  com- 
parison with  most  of  his  subjects,  having  strongly- 
marked  features,  watchful  dark  eyes,  a  slight  beard 
and  moustache,  and  manners  at  once  gracious  yet  im- 
perturbably  reserved,  the  Mikado  looks  as  different 
from  the  pictures  of  his  Imperial  Ancestors  as  the 
spirit  governing  the  proceedings  of  to-day  differs 
from  the  ancient  Japanese  notions.  But  truly  here, 
if  ever  anywhere  in  the  world, 

The  old  order  changeth,  giving  place  to  new. 

Observe  among  these  gilded  Peers  one  near  to 
Count  Ito,  wearing  his  black  hair  tied  with  white 
string  into  a  top-knot,  after  the  antique  fashion  of 
the  Daimio  and  Samurai.  At  the  end  of  the  same 
bench  sits  his  elder  brother — bald,  or  else  he,  too, 
would  wear  the  mage,  for  that  is  Shimazu  Saburo, 
of  the  proud  Satsuma  clan;  and  it  was  a  retainer 
of  that  powerful  house  who  cut  down  Mr.  Richard- 
son and  his  English  friends  at  Kanagawa,  because 
they  dared  to  cross  the  pathway  of  a  Japanese 
Prince.  Now  all  that  is  left  of  those  turbulent 
times  is  Shimazu's  top-knot!  It  is  another  Japan 
you   behold,    with    everything   changed    except    its 


5o2  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

population  and  their  delightful  old-world  ways.  The 
hundred  and  one  guns  thundering  without — as  Count 
Ito  receives  the  speech  from  the  Mikado,  and  retires 
to  his  place  with  it — are  fired  over  the  grave  of 
Dai-Nippon.  A  new  Japan  is  definitely  born — con- 
stitutional,- progressive,  energetic,  resourceful,  sure 
to  become  great,  and  perhaps  destined  to  become 
almost  again  as  happy  as  she  was  of  yore.  Let 
the  nations  of  the  West  receive  and  welcome  as 
she  deserves  this  immeasurably  ancient  Empire, 
which  thus  renews  her  youth  in  the  fountain  of 
constitutional  liberties  and  institutions.  With  one 
slight  inclination  of  his  august  head,  the  Mikado 
saluted  the  vast  assembly  bending  low  before  him  ; 
and  Japan  had  entered  on  the  list  of  lands  governed 
by  an  electoral  regime,  as  his  Imperial  Majesty 
passed  through  a  guard  of  Lancers  to  his  equipage. 

Tokio,  Nov.  29,  1890. 


CHAPTER  XL. 

HOME  W  A  E  D     BOU  X  D. 

This  good  ship  Verona,  Captain  Seymour,  was  to 
have  started  for  Nagasaki  and  Hong  Kong  to-morrow, 
February  13  ;  but  "  the  unexpected  "  has  occurred. 
News  suddenly  reached  Kobe  that  Her  Majesty's  gun- 
boat Pigmy  had  gone  ashore,  and  badly,  in  the 
northern  channel  of  the  island  sea ;  consequently 
a  request  had  been  telegraphed  to  Mr.  Rickett,  the 
ever-courteous  agent  of  the  great  company  at  Yoko- 
hama— who  happened  to  be  in  Hiogo  on  extra  duty 
— that  the  Verona  would  expedite  her  departure  in 
order  to  help  the  little  man-of-war.  Accordingly, 
word  was  circulated  that  the  steamship  would  set 
forth  a  day  before  her  time,  and  it  was  "  pretty  to 
see  "  with  what  alacrity  the  ship's  company  hurried 
their  cargo  on  board  in  order  to  get  quickly  to  the 
scene  of  disaster.  At  half-past  five,  on  a  dark  and 
windy  evening,  the '  Verona's  screw  began  to  revolve, 
and  we  threaded  all  night  long  the  mazy  archipelagoes 
of  the  island  sea.  A  chain  of  five  great  land-locked 
waters  compose  this  curious  and  beautiful  ocean 
passage.  They  are  named  Nadas,  and  there  follow, 
counting  from  east  to  west,  the  Isumi,  the  Ilarima, 
the  Biugo,  the  Iyo,  and  the  Suwo  Nada.     The  chart 


5°4 


SEAS  AND  LANDS. 


v  ■:■«■•. 


>J-S 


%# 


would  give  an  inexperienced  eye  the 
idea  of  prodigiously  difficult  naviga- 
tion, but  the  few  existing  lights  are 
all  leading,  and  the  water  is  every- 
where deep,  while  our  skilful  captain 
knew  his  way  perfectly,  by  reason  of 
:  long  habitude  in  these  seas.  All 
:  night,  therefore,  the  Verona  went  at 
'  good  speed  on  her  errand  of  help, 
and,  slacking  a  little  at  daybreak 
for  the  narrow  places,  about  half- 
past  six  we  made  out  the  Pigmy, 
lying  at  anchor  comfortably  enough 
off  the  little  port  of  Onomichi.  She 
had  gone  badly  upon  the  tail-end  ot 
an  island,  at  high  water  too ;  but 
having  taken  150  tons  of  stores  and 
ballast  out,  the  little  man-of-war  had 
lifted  herself  off,  and  was  not  seri- 
ously damaged.  We  sent  boats  to 
her,  and  Captain  Hewitt  came  on 
board  of  us,  but  only  to  say  that 
she  had  no  need  of  assistance,  and 
would  proceed  alone  to  Nagasaki, 
to  dock,  as  soon  as  she  should  have 
cleared  away  a  wire  hawser  which 
was  fouling  her  propeller. 

With  a  whole  day  gained,  there- 
fore, the  Verona  saluted  the  dis- 
comfited ship-of-war,  and  steamed 
cheerily  onward,  through  the  ever 
varying   scenery    of   the   "Nadas." 


HOMEWARD   BOUND.  505 

Innumerable  islands  and  islets  rise  on  all  sides  from 
the  green  and  glassy  waters  of  the  inland  sea  ;  some- 
times bare,  broken,  and  precipitous,  sometimes  clad 
with  forests  of  fir,  and  with  bamboo-grass,  from  their 
sandy  sea  rims  to  their  serrated  crests.  Innumerable 
towns  and  villages  nestle  amid  their  sunny  nooks,  or 
in  the  valleys  of  the  mainland;  and  uncounted  junks, 
fishing-boats,  and  sampans  dot  the  surface  of  the 
placid  sea.  The  islands  take  all  kinds  of  shapes, 
appearing  now  like  castles,  or  fortresses ;  now  like 
full-rigged,  black-sailed  vessels,  and  then  again  like 
vast  green  velvet  cushions  laid  on  a  carpet  of 
emerald  silk  shot  with  purple.  It  is  an  exaggera- 
tion, no  doubt,  to  call  this  chain  of  salt-water  lakes 
"the  most  beautiful  sea  in  all  the  world,"  as  some 
guide-books  do.  The  iEgean  is  far  lovelier,  and  so 
is  the  western  coast  of  Scotland  in  summer — but, 
when  the  sun  shines,  as  it  did  with  us,  very  fair 
indeed  are  the  landscapes  and  seascapes  of  the 
"  Xadas,"  and  I  rejoice  to  have  had  my  hours  of 
parting  from  Japan  and  Japanese  friends  rendered 
less  melancholy  by  the  grace  and  gaiety  of  the  last 
pictures  we  shall  see  of  the  kindly  and  pleasant 
land. 

In  the  Straits  of  Shimonoseki — through  which, 
by  the  by,  old  Will  Adams,  of  Gillingham,  first 
found  his  way  to  the  country  of  the  Mikado — the 
Verona  dropped  her  anchor  for  two  or  three  hours. 
This  was  to  let  the  hot  current  of  the  "Kurosiwa" 
spend  itself,  for  the  flood  runs  at  seven  knots 
through  these  narrows,  and  makes  navigation  some- 
what   perilous.     Steaming  out  into  the  Yellow  Sea 


5o6  'SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

we  found  a  biting  north-wester  blowing,  with  fre- 
quent snowstorms ;  and  a  somewhat  lively  move- 
ment of  the  vessel  ensued ;  but  we  ran  all  the 
more  speedily  down  the  coast,  and  entered  the 
picturesque  inlet  of  Nagasaki  at  8.30  a.m.  of 
Wednesday,  January  14.  This  town — lately  so 
badly  scourged  by  cholera — looks  the  very  last 
place  in  the  East  for  such  a  visitation,  standing 
as  it  does  amid  high  hills,  which  ought  to  afford 
a  pure  water  supply,  and  sanitated  by  perpetual 
sea-breezes.  Yet  every  year,  or  nearly  so,  the 
cholera  comes  over  in  a  Chinese  craft  from  neigh- 
bouring Shanghai,  and  decimates  these  clean  and 
temperate  Japanese.  The  strong  and  handsome 
Russian  flagship,  Admiral  Nachimoff,  was  lying  at 
anchor  near  us,  as  well  as  the  Verona's  own  sister, 
the  Ancona — the  pair  of  them  together  performing 
the  passenger  and  mail  service  between  Hong  Kong 
and  Yokohama,  with  such  admirable  regularity, 
moreover,  that  one  of  our  officers  declared  the  two 
steamers  "  knew  their  own  way."  The  harbour  is 
land-locked  by  lofty  hills,  which  were  powdered 
with  snow ;  and  snow  or  hail  fell  constantly  all  the 
time  we  lay  coaling  and  getting  in  cargo. 

At  5  p.m.  of  the  14th  the  Verona  started  for  the 
run  of  four  days  which  separates  Nagasaki  from 
Hong  Kong,  the  most  easterly  possession  of  Her 
Majesty.  At  9  p.m.  she  steamed  into  the  heart  of  a 
black  and  sudden  north-westerly  gale,  savagely  blow- 
ing down  from  the  Gulf  of  Pekin,  and  heaping  uj>on 
us,  as  soon  as  the  ship  was  clear  of  Me-Sima — the 
"  Asses'  Ears  " — all  the  weight  of  water  of  the  cold 


HOMEWARD   BOUND.  507 

and  vast  Yellow  Sea.  A  landsman's  estimate  of 
a  storm  is  always  justly  discredited,  but  Captain 
Seymour,  our  very  experienced  commander,  after- 
wards declared  that  he  had  encountered  no  fiercer 
wind  or  more  furious  seas  since  1886.  The  wind 
blew,  indeed,  all  night  long  with  a  force  reaching 
the  hurricane  standard,  and  the  waves  grew  rapidly 
into  such  masses  of  towering  weight  and  speed  that 
the  loss  of  boats  and  gear  were  threatened,  and  the 
Verona  had  to  be  hove-to  for  six  hours.  Below  was 
witnessed  the  usual  scene  of  comic  misery — every- 
thing adrift  in  the  cabins ;  slippers,  books,  and 
water-cans  chasing  each  other  round  and  round, 
portmanteaus  colliding  with  hat-boxes,  stewards 
staggering  about  in  the  saloon  with  soup  in  cups, 
dinner  a  gymnastic  exercise  to  preserve  equilibrium 
and  keep  the  food  on  plates,  ladies  helplessly 
succumbing,  men  grumbling  or  silent.  On  deck  the 
green  seas  time  after  time  fell  thundering  on  sky- 
lights and  hatches,  pouring  in  cascades  from  the 
bridges  and  houses,  smashing  the  bulwarks  and  boat 
fenders,  and  sweeping  everything  movable  into  the 
scuppers.  In  a  less  well-found  or  well-handled  vessel 
there  would  have  been  real  peril  in  this  tempest ; 
but  Captain  Seymour  knew  his  ship,  and  fought  the 
hurricane  with  consummate  skill  and  success.  Lying 
in  my  berth  that  wild  night,  I  amused  myself  by 
verifying  an  old  theory  that  the  Greek  phrase,  tri- 
kuma  kakou,  does  not  mean  the  "  third  wave  of  evil," 
as  many  great  scholars  have  rendered  it,  but  "  the 
threefold  wave  of  evil."  Mr.  Swinburne  himself 
makes  the  general  mistake  when  he  writes  of  one — 


5o8  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

"  Who  comes  in  sight  of  the  third  great  wave, 
Which  never  a  swimmer  can  cross  or  climb." 

Watch  in  hand,  I  timed,  for  a  long  while,  swinging 
to  and  fro  in  my  berth,  the  huge  beam  seas  which 
rolled  our  boats  into  the  water ;  and  observation 
proved,  as  I  well  knew  before,  that  at  periodical 
intervals  there  come,  in  a  storm  on  the  ocean,  alto- 
gether, three  high  dominant  billows,  the  middle  one 
the  worst,  which  are  plainly  to  be  distinguished  from 
the  minor  rollers,  and  which  do  all  the  real  mischief 
to  a  labouring  ship.  Comparing  notes  afterwards 
with  our  commander,  he  assured  me  that  this  was 
certainly  true,  and  that  practical  navigators  look  for 
these  recurrent  tri-kumata,  or  "  triple  surges  of 
evil,"  just  about  three  times  in  each  hour  of  any 
heavy  gale. 

At  last,  on  Thursday  morning,  after  having  the 
lifeboat  damaged  and  the  fore-topsail  tattered  to 
shreds  in  the  gaskets,  we  could  hold  our  course 
again ;  and  steamed,  through  a  still  turbulent  sea, 
for  "  Turnabout,"  at  the  western  entrance  of  the 
Formosa  Channel.  This  was  reached  on  Friday 
morning,  and  we  ran  down  between  the  mainland  of 
China  and  the  great  island  of  Formosa  in  gradually 
softening  weather,  until  the  snowstorms  and  the 
tempests  were  fairly  left  astern.  Under  the  glad- 
dening sky  countless  fishing-boats  had  put  out  along 
the  yellow  and  rocky  shores  with  mat-sails  and 
painted  prows,  and  were  busy  on  the  dancing,  but 
no  longer  dangerous  waters.  The  air  grew  balmy, 
the   sun    glittered  on    the   lace-work  of  the  waves, 


HOMEWARD   BO  VXD.  509 

which  yesterday  was  all  blinding  sea-spume  and 
spin-drift ;  the  good  ship  resumed  her  trim  appear- 
ance, the  ladies — pale,  but  reassured — crept  out 
again  on  deck  ;  Saturday,  January  17,  was  a  wholly 
delightful  day,  and  to-morrow  (Sunday)  we  shall 
thread  the  Lymoon  Pass  and  anchor  in  Hong  Kong 
harbour. 

It  was  Sunday  afternoon,  however,  before  we 
were  moored  in  the  safe  and  picturesque  haven 
which  lies  between  the  island  of  Hong  Kong  and 
the  mainland  of  China,  having  steamed  down  the 
coast  past  Chapel  Rock,  the  Lammacks,  and  that 
curious  crag  named  "  Piedra  Bianca,"  which  rises 
solitary  out  of  the  open  sea  to  a  height  of  150  feet, 
and  looks,  afar  off,  just  like  a  junk  under  full  sail. 
There  is,  indeed,  a-  story  of  a  British  captain  who 
took  it  for  a  full-rigged  vessel,  and,  being  on  the 
starboard  tack,  would  not  give  way  until  he  was 
almost  upon  it.  The  entrance  to  Hong  Kong 
Harbour,  between  the  yellow  and  green  hills,  is 
very  striking ;  and  the  anchorage  under  the  terraced 
streets  of  Victoria  and  the  lofty  Peaks  affords  one  of 
the  most  busy  and  thronged  spectacles  of  commerce 
in  all  the  Eastern  seas.  The  city  itself  is  almost 
as  much  British  as  Chinese,  but  the  pig-tailed 
people  crowd  its  well-built  streets,  and  in  the  back 
regions  have  altogether  their  own  life  and  ways, 
kept  sternly  in  order  by  the  stalwart,  bearded  Sikh 
policemen,  in  red  turbans.  Parsees  and  Bohra  mer- 
chants from  Bombay  ;  Malays,  Klings,  and  Lascars  ; 
sailors  of  every  flag  and  from  every  imaginable 
region,  mingle  with  the  motley  local  populace  upon 


5io  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

the  quays  and  streets.  A  Babel  of  tongues  announces 
this  for  what  it  is — one  of  the  central  emporia  of 
the  Eastern  world ;  and  pleasant  enough,  as  well  as 
amusing,  is  Hong  Kong  at  the  present  season,  with 
its  variegated  population  and  splendid  natural  sur- 
roundings. In  summer  it  grows  intolerably  hot, 
lying  in  so  deep  a  granite  oven  under  the  over- 
hanging Peak  of  1600  feet  altitude.  But  in  what 
is  called  the  "  winter  "  here — weather  resembling 
our  mid-June — the  air  is  clear,  cool,  and  sunny,  and 
the  Botanical  Gardens  are  to-day  in  full  floral 
beauty.  Wandering  there  we  see  the  trees  and 
blossoms  of  all  parts  of  the  earth,  assembled  like 
its  people.  I  notice  the  "  silky  oaks  "  of  Australia, 
and  the  candle-berry  tree — aleurites  triloba — of 
Madagascar,  side  by  side  with  the  coral  bush  from 
Brazil,  coffee  shrubs  in  full  bloom  from  Ceylon, 
fan-palms,  and  date-palms,  mango-trees,  and  the 
beautiful  bougainvilliers  which  make  Bombay  so 
splendid  in  the  cold  weather.  Moreover,  there  is 
a  more  diverse  and  populous  bird-life  in  these 
gardens  to  be  seen  in  one  morning  than  dear  but 
desolate  Japan  can  show  in  a  week,  and  from  end 
to  end  of  a  whole  province.  In  the  aviaries  are 
gold  and  silver  pheasants,  the  bleeding-breasted 
pigeon,  and  doves  of  all  sorts,  while  the  thickets 
of  spirse,  terminalia,  crotons,  and  tea  bushes  are 
full  of  China  starlings,  magpies,  tits,  finches,  rice- 
birds,  white  linnets,  and  the  China  robin — a  hand- 
some fellow,  with  a  white  bar  across  his  wings. 
Above  the  well-kept  gardens  an  extraordinary  little 
railway  carries  people  to  the  top  of  the  peak.     The 


HOMEWARD   BOUND.  511 

ascent  is  steeper  than  the  roof  of  a  house,  and  the 
climb  one  of  1500  feet — perhaps  a  mile  or  so  in 
distance ;  but  by  means  of  a  steel  rope,  which 
lowers  one  carriage  while  it  hoists  the  other,  you 
go  gaily  and  safely  up  a  slope  where  a  cat  would 
slip,  and  passing  two  little  stations,  the  "  Church," 
and  the  "  Tennis  ground,"  arrive  at  the  upper  shed, 
where  the  machinery  works.  Thence  to  the  hotel,  on 
the  summit,  and  the  various  residential  refuges,  where 
Hong  Kongers  keep  cool  in  the  fierce  summer,  is  a 
short  walk  ;  while  below  you,  on  one  side,  stretches 
the  illimitable  North  Pacific,  beyond  a  long  outlying 
chain  of  islands ;  on  the  other  lies  the  large  and 
busy  harbour  crowded  with  shipping,  and  the  pros- 
perous city  of  Victoria.  She  is  celebrating  to-day 
her  Jubilee,  the  fiftieth  birthday  of  the  colony,  and 
good  reason  indeed  has  Britain  to  be  proud  of  this 
her  farthest-removed  Eastern  daughter,  who  in  half 
a  century  has  grown  to  a  population  of  200,000 
souls,  a  shipping  entry  of  6,000,000  tons,  and  an 
export  trade  of  £40,000,000  annually. 

Peaceful,  however,  and  prosperous  as  it  all  is, 
where  fifty  years  ago  piracy  and  barbarism  pre- 
vailed, the  old  Mongolian  savagery  and  crime  are 
still  latent,  and  break  out  sometimes.  There  lies 
in  sight  of  our  hotel  a  well-built  merchant  steamer, 
the  Namoa,  trading  to  Formosa.  Only  a  fortnight 
ago,  she  put  out  with  250  Chinese  passengers  on 
board,  her  captain  little  dreaming  that  fifty  of  them, 
coming  on  board  so  meekly  with  their  tickets  and 
bundles,  were  desperate  ruffians,  armed  witli  pistols, 
knives,  and  stink-pots.     At  tiffin,  on  the  first  day 


5i2  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

of  the  voyage,  these  scoundrels  suddenly  rose,  shot 
dead  a  seasick  passenger,  who  was  giving  the  alarm, 
as  well  as  the  captain  on  his  bridge  ;  barricaded  all 
the  honest  Chinamen  into  one  part  of  the  ship,  and 
the  passengers,  officers,  and  crew  into  the  other ;  and 
then  looted  the  vessel  from  stem  to  stern,  appro- 
priating 25,000  dollars  and  all  portable  valuables. 
These  they  took  off  into  a  couple  of  junks  waiting- 
close  by,  and  left  the  plundered  steamer  to  creep 
back  again  to  Hong  Kong,  with  her  dead  men  and 
her  rifled  hold.  The  blood  and  bullet-marks  were 
still  visible  when  I  went  on  board.  Her  Majesty's 
ship  Linnet  was  sent  out  after  the  pirates,  who  were 
certainly  Hong  Kong  men,  but  thus  far  none  have 
been  captured.  They  are  probably,  to-day,  counting 
and  chinking  their  "  Mexicans  "  placidly  in  some  of 
the  "  hongs  "  at  hand.  The  bland  and  pigtailed 
A-foo,  in  blue  gown  and  embroidered  shoes,  who 
points  out  the  ship  to  you,  may,  perhaps,  know  all 
about  the  plot  and  the  plunder.  The  Pekin,  which 
takes  us  forward  from  Hong  Kong,  has  for  a  pas- 
senger the  chief  engineer  of  the  Namoa.  One  of 
the  pirates  put  a  pistol  to  his  heart  and  pulled  the 
trigger.  He  struck  the  barrel  up,  and  the  bullet  cut 
off  his  moustache  and  eyebrow — a  narrow  shave  ! 

On  January  22  we  steamed  out  of  Hong  Kong  in 
the  peninsular  and  Oriental  steamship  Pekin,  a  fine 
vessel  of  the  old  comfortable  type,  with  cabins  on 
deck,  of  about  4000  tons,  Captain  Harris  command- 
ing. The  course  goes  west  of  south  between  the 
Cochin-China  coast  and  the  Paracels,  that  perilous 
group  of  islets  and  reefs,  which,  lying  in  the  mid- 


HOMEWARD    BOUND.  513 

path  of  all  the  typhoons,  has  wrecked  many  and 
many  a  storm-tossed  ship.  Possibly  enough  Her 
Majesty's  ship  Wasp  was  lost  there.  Fishing-junks, 
always  in  couples,  dot  the  deep-blue  sea,  and  the 
flying-fish  now  appears,  starting  up  from  the  furrows 
of  the  ocean  as  quails  do  from  the  rice-fields.  Some 
leap  on  hoard,  and  I  preserve  their  alar  fins,  which 
are  real  membranous  wings,  and  perform  true  flight. 
During  three  warm  and  pleasant,  though  cloudy, 
days,  the  Pekin  traversed  the  dark-blue  waters  of 
the  China  Sea,  with  the  north-east  monsoon  blowing 
so  steadily  astern  that  throughout  this  interval  we 
never  shifted  a  brace  or  started  a  single  inch  in 
any  sheet  of  the  square  sails.  Thus,  although  the 
engines  were  going  easily,  and  the  ship  was  only 
burning  forty-eight  tons  of  coal  a  day,  the  north- 
easter and  a  southerly  current  made  our  diurnal  run 
good.  We  sighted  the  Cochin-China  coast  at  Cape 
Varela,  and  scarcely  lost  sight  of  it  again  until  the 
light  on  Cape  Padaran,  established  by  the  French, 
twinkled  over  the  midnight  waves.  A  full  moon 
made  the  darkness  silvery,  and  here,  in  the  very 
pathway  and  breeding-place  of  typhoons — we  had  as 
comfortable  a  passage  as  could  be  wished.  They 
mostly  start  somewhere  about  the  Philippine  Islands, 
whirl  their  wild  course  up  the  Gulf  of  Ton  qui  11,  and 
then  deflect  to  ravage  Formosa,  the  waters  of  the 
Yellow  Sea,  and  the  coasts  of  Japan.  The  season 
for  them  is  from  August,  or  even  July,  to  October. 
As  we  approach  nearer  the  equator,  and  pass  the 
curious  "Shoe  Rock"  and  the  mouths  of  the  Cam- 
bodia River,  the  air  grows  very  sensibly  warmer,  and 


5i4  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

the  north-east  monsoon  blows  itself  gradually  out. 
A  superb  sunset  delights  all  eyes  on  the  evening  of 
January  24,  the  day  dying  away  in  glory  unspeakable 
at  the  far  end  of  the  Gulf  of  Siam,  and  the  last  of 
the  strong  winter  wind,  now  become  mild  and 
balmy,  wafting  us  over  the  latest  ripples  of  the 
China  swell.  Amanitas  versus  fecit,  of  which  these 
are  two : — 

"  Tangled  and  torn,  the  white  sea-laces 

Broider  the  breast  of  the  Indian  deep  ; 
Lifted  aloft,  the  strong  screw  races, 

To  slacken  and  grind  in  the  waves  that  leap ; 
The  great  sails  strain  ;  the  broad  bows  shiver 
To  green  and  silver  the  purple  sea ; 
And,  forth  from  the  sunset,  a  dancing  River 

Flows,  broken  gold,  where  our  ship  goes  free. 

Too  free !  too  fast !     With  memories  laden, 

I  gaze  to  the  Northward,  where  lies  Japan. 
You  are  there — so  far !  friend,  teacher,  and  maiden  ! 

Ham  and  Mina  and  Yoshi  San  ! 
You  are  under  that  sky  by  the  storm-wind  shaken, 

A  thousand  ri,  as  the  sea-gull  flies  ; 
As  if  it  were  death,  not  Time,  had  taken 

Our  eyes  away  from  your  gentle  eyes." 


We  made  the  outlying  islands  which  announce  the 
Straits  of  Singapore  on  the  morning  of  January  26, 
and — steaming  past  the  town  and  the  roadstead, 
shining  and  calm,  full  of  shipping,  threaded  a  narrow 
passage  of  exquisite  beauty — we  moored  at  the 
Peninsular  and  Oriental  wharf,  amid  hills  covered 
with  palm  groves,  thickets  of  the  flowering  scarlet 


HOMEWARD   BOUND.  515 

hibiscus,  and  Malay  villages  built  on  piles.  Singa- 
pore basks  amid  an  almost  eternal  sunshine,  tempered 
by  daily  equatorial  rainstorms — a  bright  and  busy 
city,  planted  on  sheltered  seas,  and  embosomed  in 
the  richest  verdure.  About  half  the  population 
seems  to  consist  of  Chinese,  who  almost  monopolise 
trade  and  business.  The  city  and  country  roads  are 
excellent,  the  red  soil  binding  into  broad  and  level 
ways,  along  which  jinrikishas,  and  gharries  drawn 
by  sturdy  little  Pegu  ponies,  whirl  you  gaily  along. 
Our  first  visit  was  to  the  Botanical  Gardens,  which 
are  even  more  beautiful  in  aspect  than  those  of 
Peradenia  at  Candy,  and  nearly  as  rich  in  sylvan  and 
floral  wealth.  The  Director  and  a  friend,  who  occupy 
separate  houses  in  the  heart  of  these  enchanting 
gardens,  seemed  to  be  living  in  a  perfect  botanical 
paradise.  Conspicuous  among  a  hundred  notable 
trees  around,  were  the  "  Traveller's  Palm,"  which 
grows  so  gracefully  in  the  form  of  a  vast  widespread 
fan,  and  has  its  stem  full  of  sweet  water ;  and  the 
mangosteen,  on  the  exquisite  fruit  of  which '  we 
breakfasted  next  day.  From  the  gardens  I  drove  to 
the  house  of  the  Dutch  Consul-General,  Mr.  Lavino  ; 
and  there  found,  just  starting  for  China  and  Japan, 
my  old  friend,  Lord  Connemara,  the  most  energetic, 
successful,  and  popular  governor  Madras  has  ever 
known.  We  talked  together  about  India  so  long 
that  the  niidit  had  fallen  before  I  could  get  away, 
and  fireflies  and  tropical  lightning  guided  my  dog- 
cart home  along  the  dark  green  lanes  of  Singapore. 
At  the  Director's  house  we  played  with  some  curi- 
ous domestic  pets,  among  them  a  binturong  and  a 


5i6  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

"  wah-wah "  monkey.  This  last  was  a  delightful 
little  creature,  with  very  long  silky  arms  and  soft 
melancholy  eyes.  It  frequents  the  Malay  forests, 
and  utters  its  plaintive  cry  of  "  wah-wah "  in  a 
sad  scale  of  ascending  notes.  Trim  and  neat  as 
the  Singapore  Gardens  were,  and  populous  as  the 
adjoining  city  is,  the  Director  could  point  to  a 
neighbouring  hill  where  there  is  always  to  be  found 
a  pair  of  tigers ;  and  these  beasts  often  swim  over 
the  Straits  from  the  adjacent  island  and  pick  up  a 
China  or  Malay  man  in  the  woods. 

At  Singapore  we  took  on  board  for  Colombo  and 
India  a  very  distinguished  friend,  Admiral  Sir  Nowell 
Salmon,  V.  C,  returning  with  his  family  and  suite 
from  the  command  of  Her  Majesty's  China  squadron. 
The  good  ship  Pehin  now  steamed  pleasantly  forward 
through  the  lovely  Straits  of  Malacca.  They  were 
hot,  of  course,  but  the  tropical  glow  seemed  welcome 
after  the  snowstorms  of  Nagasaki  and  the  incle- 
mencies of  the  Yellow  Sea.  Past  "  pulo "  after 
"  pulo  " — as  these  fair  islets  are  called — of  delicious, 
glittering  beauty,  fringed  with  palms,  and  rising 
from  a  sea  of  silver  and  green,  the  Pehin  leisurely 
sped ;  for  you  must  enter  Penang  roadstead  in  day- 
light, and  we  had  time  to  sj)are.  The  town  of 
Penang  has  little  to  offer  to  the  notice  of  the  j)assing 
traveller  except  a  waterfall,  which  is  too  often,  as 
now,  destitute  of  water,  and  the  usual  mixed  popu- 
lation of  Malays,  Klings,  and  Chinese  found  all 
along  the  Peninsula.  Its  naturally  charming  aspect 
is  spoiled  by  a  hideous  pile  of  Government  offices, 
erected  by  an  Engineer  officer,  who,  it  is  to  be  hoped, 


HOMEWARD   ROUND  517 

was  a  better  soldier  than  architect.  At  Penang  our 
stay  was  limited,  but  proved  longer  than  usual  on 
account  of  a  lighter-boat,  full  of  tin  ingots,  which 
got  aground  in  coming  off  to  us.  On  January  30, 
at  2  p.m.,  we  started  again  and  threaded  a  labyrinth 
of  fishing-stakes,  junks,  and  proas  on  our  way  to  go 
by  Acheen  Head  across  the  bottom  of  the  Bay  of 
Bengal  to  Colombo.  It  is  a  run  of  four  days  and 
a  half,  during  which  you  sight  the  grand  "  Golden 
Mountain  "  of  Sumatra,  and  discern  very  plainly  the 
rich  shores  and  outlying  groups  of  that  splendid 
island.  The  "  Golden  Mountain  "  rises  a  little  way 
inland,  to  the  height  of  7,800  feet,  and  is  so  symme- 
trical in  outline  as  almost  to  recall  the  stately  per- 
fection of  Fuji  San.  It  was  interesting  to  const 
along  the  green  rolling  hills  of  Sumatra,  and  to  see 
the  Dutch  blockading  ships  sullenly  patrolling  those 
beautiful  shores,  which  they  cannot  occupy.  For 
eighteen  weary  years  Mynheer  has  been  waging  a 
hopeless  war  against  the  Achinese,  which  never 
would  have  commenced  if  Mr.  Gladstone  had  not 
injudiciously  abandoned  the  Sultan  to  the  Dutch- 
men— one  of  the  many  mistakes  of  his  Colonial 
policy.  They  have  lost  thousands  of  lives  and  spent 
unnumbered  guelders  fighting  the  climate  and  the 
Sumatran  Muslims;  and  at  the  end  of  it  all,  are 
penned  up  to-day  in  Acheen,  potted  by  lurking 
Malay  sharpshooters  whenever  they  stray  beyond 
their  fortified  posts.  The  very  lighthouse  on  Acheen 
Head  has  to  be  guarded  by  a  bomb-proof  block- 
house, where  twelve  soldiers  are  always  kept  ;  and 
every  night  at  sundown  boats  are  manned  and   sent 


5i8  SEAS  AND   LANDS. 

round  and  inside  the  bays  and  inlets  to  keep  out 
contraband  muskets  and  munitions.  But  the  natives 
have  learned  how  to  manufacture  guns  and  gun- 
powder for  themselves,  and  would  probably  drive 
out  the  Dutch  eventually,  except  that  the  blockade 
keeps  them  from  selling  their  pepper ;  and  being 
thus  terribly  short  of  cash,  they  may  have  at  last  to 
yield,  or  to  take  entirely  to  their  hills.  It  is  this 
for  which  the  Hollanders  are  now  waiting — so  I  was 
told  by  a  Dutch  captain  of  one  of  their  men-of-war, 
who  sailed  with  us  from  Singapore  to  Colombo  ;  but 
such  a  policy  of  lingering  and  phlegmatic  hostility 
paralyses  the  trade  and  prosperity  of  the  splendid 
Sumatran  peninsula,  and  it  is  a  pity  for  everybody 
concerned  that  the  Achinese  cannot  do  what  they 
ardently  desire,  by  placing  themselves  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  British  flag,  due  arrangements  being 
made  to  soothe  the  pride  of  the  retiring  Power. 

The  Pekin  took  her  time  in  crossing  the  bottom 
of  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  for  she  had  a  day  in  hand, 
and  did  not  wish  to  enter  Colombo  Harbour  in  the 
dark.  At  Colombo  we  personally  finished  our  cir- 
cumnavigation of  the  globe,  having  previously  visited 
Ceylon  from  the  side  of  India.  The  wonderful  leafy 
lanes,  and  dark  interminable  groves  of  palm,  which 
make  the  environs  of  Colomba  one  vast  magnificent 
hot-house,  were,  therefore,  not  new  to  our  none  the 
less  delighted  eyes.  Ceylon  is,  in  truth,  an  earthly 
heaven  for  botanists  ;  for  fruit,  for  flowers,  and  above 
all,  for  glorious  and  beautiful  tropical  trees.  A  drive 
of  seven  miles  which  we  took  to  an  ancient  Buddhist 
temple  showed  on  the  way  nearly  every  known  speci- 


HOMEWARD  BOUND.  519 

men  of  equatorial  vegetation,  and  it  was  especially 
good  to  see  how  the  cultivation  of  the  bread-fruit 
tree  is  increasing.  Good,  also,  to  see  with  what 
irrepressible  energy  British  soldiers  were  playing 
football  on  the  maidan  with  the  thermometer  at 
87°. 

From  Colombo  our  sea-road  to  Aden,  Port  Said, 
and  Marseilles  is  too  well  known  and  too  often 
traversed  to  call  for  external  remarks.  In  my 
"  India  Revisited "  I  have  myself  described  the 
voyage  homewards  over  the  Arabian  Sea.  We 
passed,  on  board  the  Peninsular  and  Oriental 
steamer  Ravenna — -into  which  vessel  we  shifted  at 
Colombo — between  the  Maldives  and  Laccadives, 
guided  by  the  excellent  light  on  Minekoi  Island  ; 
and  after  six  days'  further  steaming  over  peaceful 
seas,  made  our  way  between  Cape  Guardafui  and 
the  Island  of  Socotra  to  brown,  bare,  and  burning 
Aden. 

Aden,  February  13,  1891. 

It  is  from  this  Arabian  cinder-hole,  so  ugly  and 
so  useful,  that  I  despatch  to  you  this  last  of  my 
desultory  letters.  What  remains  of  our  journey 
homeward  by  the  Red  Sea,  the  Canal,  and  Mar- 
seilles is  all  well  known,  and  there  hangs  above 
us  a  horrible  chance,  moreover,  that  we  may  be 
quarantined  for  a  fortnight  in  Egypt,  on  account 
of  the  small-pox  which  was  raging  in  Colombo 
when  we  left.  It  only  remains  to  remark  that  no 
sea-voyage  can  well  be  more  interesting  or  more 
health-giving   than   this   which   the   steamships   of 


52o  SEAS  AND  LANDS. 

the  great  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Company  render 
so  easy  and  so  pleasant.  Thanks  to  its  excellent 
arrangements,  we  have  sailed  over  ten  thousand 
miles  of  changeful  ocean — through  seven  great  seas 
and  four  straits — without  a  moment's  apprehension 
or  difficulty  ;  finding  always  the  most  courteous  and 
skillful  officers,  admirable  accommodation,  a  bounti- 
ful table,  and  the  best  of  good  casual  company. 
To  be  under  the  flag  of  the  "  Unofficial  Fleet "  of 
the  British  Empire — for  such  the  Peninsular  and 
Oriental  may  be  styled — seems,  indeed,  always  to 
me  to  be  already  half  at  home.  Yet,  after  steaming 
round  the  entire  coast-line  of  the  Continent  of  Asia, 
from  Japan  to  Syria,  one  longs  for  dry  land  at  last, 
and  I  shall  be  glad — very  glad — to  tread  again  the 
familiar  pavements  of  Fleet  Street. 


INDEX. 


Abacus,  the,  278 

Achinese,  the,  their  desire  to  be 
placed  under  the  British  flag,  518 

Adams,  President,  63 

Adams,  Will,  159,  160 ;  his  visit  to 
Japan,  505 

Aden,  519 

Admiral  Sachimoff,  the  flagship,  506 

Ah-Kat,  Chinese  attendant,  145,  151 

Alaska,  142 

America,  cars  in,  59,  60,  77 ;  demo- 
cracy in,  105,  106 ;  sonnet  of 
adieu  to,  138;  trees  in,  113,  114: 
women  in,  106 

Amida,  images  of,  210 

Ancona,  the,  506 

Anson,  143 

Anticosti,  island  of,  its  dangers,  19 

Ants,  250,  256 

Arashi-yama,  the  mountain,  209, 
210;  its  cherry  blossoms,  238 

Ardagh,  Miss,  poetess,  49 

Asakusa.  170:  Emperor's  palace  at. 
215  ;  gathering  at  palace,  215,  216, 
217 

Asarum,  the,  leaf,  197,  200 

Astronomy,  240,  247,  249,  255 

Atlantic,  the  North,  7-9,  10,  12,  14  ; 
birds  of,  12,  13 

Awoto,  story  of,  225,  226 

Barker,  Annie  Herbert,  poetess, 
211 

Bees,  250,  256 

Belfjic,  the  steamship,  140,  143,  146, 
149-  'S^Sj-  I56>  *59;  Deis  non 
on  hoard  of,  155 

Belleisle  Struts,  dangers  of  naviga- 
tion of,  13,  22 


Biwa  Lake,  168 

Boston,  84;  its  buildings,  86;  cars, 
86;  chief  cemetery,  87;  climbing 
plant,  87  ;  parks,  86  ;  State-house, 
86  ;  .suburbs,  86,  87 

Bloody  Foreland,  the,  7,  9,  11 

British  Columbia,  climate  of,  51 

Bruddick,  Major  Isaac,  91 

Buddha,  effigy  of,  near  Ilase,  226 

Buddhism,  183,  252,  256,  265,  270; 
influence  of,  204;  its  doctrine, 
256;  Japanese,  195;  compared 
with  Shintoism,  196  ;  its  advent, 
196 ;  its  hold  of  the  people,  212 

Buddhist  priests,  212;  temple,  the, 
207,  208 

Buffalo,  114,  115 

Bunker  II ill,  its  monument,  87 

Butsu-do,  meaning  of,  195 

Cabot,  104 

(  alii'ornia,  Alta,  126 

population  of,  137 

( 'ambridge,  87 

Canada,  capital  of,  38;  climate  of, 
32,  51  ;  French  pints  of,  55,  58; 
history  of,  50:  hogs  of,  35.  3d: 
literature  of,  38  ;  her  pen-try.  44- 
46,  48-51,  58;  problems,  39;  re- 
quirements, 40 

('artier,  Jacques,  visit  to  Quebec,  24 

<  'ataracts.  the,  42 

Ceylon,  518;  British  soldiers  in,  519 

Chamberlain,  Mr.  1'..  II..  "ti  Japan- 
ese poetry,  223:  his  knowledge  of 
Japanese  language,   257;  a    story 

of,  4<>4 

Champlain.  Samuel  de.  24.  30 
( 'banning,  104, 


522 


INDEX. 


Cha-no-yu,  264,  265,  268,  270 

Cha-Seki,  the,  266 

Chemistry,  248,  249,  255 

Chicago,  117;  as  a  railway  centre 
117;  conflagration  in,  117;  its 
commerce,  118 

Childs,  Mr.  G.  W.,  journalist,  74,  75 

Chinamen,  home  going,  144 ;  ship- 
ment of  dead,  146,  148;  discom- 
forts attending  these,  145,  146, 
147  ;  as  fellow-passengers,  141  ; 
sailors,  145 ;  their  desire  to  be 
buried  at  home,  146 ;  reasons  for 
this,  151 

China  Town,  147 

Chopsticks,  135,  190 ;  how  to  use, 
232 

Chrysanthemums,  174,  181,  182,191, 
194,  204,  216;  festival  of  the,  481- 
483 

Cleveland,  114;  its  gardens,  116;  its 
population,  116;  Garfield's  burial 
place  in,  116 

Cliff  House,  136 

Colleges,  American,  105 

Colombo,  518 

Commerce,  370,  371 

Concord,  91,  92 

Bridge,  109 

Confucius,  146 

Connaught,  Duke  and  Duchess  of, 
in  Japan,  345,  36>369 

Connemara,  Lord,  Governor  of 
Madras,  515 

Cook,  Captain  James,  143 

Corean  ambassador,  217 

Craigie  House,  95 

Crawford,  Isabella  Yelanccy,  46- 
48 

Crocker,  Mr.  F.,  155 

(ur.'.on,  Mrs.  Sarah  Anne,  49 

Daikoku,  picture  of,   174;  temple 

to,  174 
Dai-Nippon,  grave  of,  502 


Daiya-Gawa  river,  210 

Darwin,  his  books,  251 ;  his  home, 

251  ;   his   principle  of  evolution 

248,  256 
Deakin,  Mr.  ,  his  emporium,  295 
Donner  Lake,  126,  firs  near,  126 
Dynamite,  transit  of,  210 

Earthquakes,  in  Japan,  213,  214; 
loss  of  life  by,  214;  what  they 
have  done,  248 

Education  in  Japan,  342 

Eliot,  Dr.  Charles,  88,  89,  97,  104, 
108 

Emerson,  91,  94,  95,  106;  Carlyle's 
present  to,  93  ;  his  books,  93  ;  his 
daughter,  91  ;  his  haunts,  95  ;  his 
house,  93 ;  his  son,  91  ;  his  teach- 
ing, 109  ;  his  widow,  93 

Emigrants,  Methodist  and  Moravian, 
10,  ii;  to  Canada,  2;  miseries 
of,  2-4,  9,  10 

England,  address  on,  344 

FiDET.iP,  see  Machar 

Fire-box,  .see  Hibachi 

Fish,  paper,  398 

Fuji-San,  273  ;  ascent  of,  457  ;  earth- 
quakes  caused    by,    215;   govern- 
ment admiration  of,  292  ;  in  sun- 
shine, 367,   369 ;   its   ascent,   169 
170,  448,  452;   beauty,   171,  172 
177;    circumference,    451  ;    cone 
188,  227  ;  cultivation  on,  451  ;  its 
eruptions,     168;     its     last,     450 
height,  168,  172,  448,  449  ;    hump 
168  ;  products,  169  ;  situation,  168 
legends    attaching    to,    171,    448 
model  of,  181 ;  poem  on,  458-460 
slaughter    of    soldiers    on,    488 
snow  upon,  455  ;  sunrise  on,  455 
view  of,  423,  425 

Fuji-Sen-Gen,  the  goddess,  171 

Fujiya,  celebrated  tea-house,  17° 


INDEX. 


5-3 


Gacn'ox,  M.  Ernest,  poet,  55 

Garfield,  see  Cleveland 

Gast,  Pierre  de,  30 

Geishas,  the,  262,  263,  264,  266 

Gettysburg,  109 

Gladstone,  Mr.,  a  mistake  of,  517 

( loddess  of  storms,  150 

Golden  Gate,  the.  137,  138 

Gompachi  and  Ko-Murasaki,  loves 

of,  436,  442 
Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  75  ;  his  grave,  80 
Great  Hell,  the,  its  deadly  influence, 

423,  424 ;  volcano  of,  424 
Greely,  General,  70,  71 

Hakoxe,  Lake  of,  423,  426;  moun- 
tains of,  422 

Hall  of  Three  Buddhas,  nee  Sambut- 
sudo 

Hamilton,  Lord  George,  312 

Harland  &  "Wolff  as  shipbuilders, 
144 

Harris,  Captain,  of  the  Pekin,  512 

Jobn,  founder  of  city,  61 

Harrison,  Mrs.,  49 

President,  66,  67.  68 

Haruna,  Lake,  466 ;  vale,  466 ;  vil- 
lage, 466 

Harvard,  its  arboretum,  102 ;  its 
observatory,  101,  102 

Rev.  John,  88 ;  his  bequest, 

99  ;  his  library,  99  ;  place  of  death, 

99 
University,    87,    88,   97,   99, 

100  ;  colleges  in,  98  ;  expenses  in, 
99 ;  its  academic  buildings,  8S ; 
gymnasium,  98,  101  ;  lands,  88 ; 
library,  88,  102 ;  memorial  hall, 
SS,  107;  its  statutes,  101,  103; 
its  students,  88,  100 ;  its  teachers, 
88 ;  its  teaching,  103 ;  its  wealth, 
100 

Hashi,  xee  Chopsticks 
Hawthorne,  house  of,  93 
Hiakuninshiu.  volume  poetry,  224 


Hibachi,  the  importance  of,  320-331 

Hidari  Jingoro,  his  wonderful  carved 
image,  235 

Hideyoshi,  Taikoon,  266,  267,  268, 
270 

Hitchcock,  Mr.,  29S 

Hoar,  Judge,  91 

I  long-Kong,  509;  bird  life  in,  5105 
its  peak,  514;  its  trees,  510;  pi- 
rates in,  511  ;  population  of,  511 

Honolulu,  155 

Horseshoe,  the,  41,  43 

Ho-yei-zan,  hump  of  Fuji-San,  168 

Ikao,  ascent  of,  465  ;  spring  of,  464 

Imai-cho,  273 

Inari,  deity  of  the  rice  plant,  419 

Inari-Sama,  the  deity,  436 

India,  literature  of,  no 

Ingles,  Captain,  E.  X.,  357,  35S,  457, 

463 
Inouye,  Count,  sacrifice  of,  385 
Iowa,  State  of,  118 
Ito,    Count,    506 ;    his    house,    310 ; 

founder   of    modern   Japan,    311, 


Countess,  312,  313 

Japan,  158 
ablution  in,  351 
a  dinner  in,  230 ;  guests  at,  231 
afternoon  in,  352 
agriculture  in,  193 
arrival  in,  of  Dutch,  371 
arrival  of  Portuguese  in,  371 
art  in,  291,  315 

art  store  in,  301,  303,  304,  305 
as  a  place  of  rest,  286 
as  England's  equal,  3S9 
arrival  in,  of  English  ships,  371 
baliies  in,  106,  174,  170,  187,  195, 

205 
ball  in,  30S,  309 
baneful    influence    of    Portuguese 

Jesuits  in,  373,  374 


524 


INDEX. 


Japan — 

bank-notes,  1 74. 

bathing  in,  167,  279,  280,  405,  464, 
467 

bathman  in,  167 

bathrooms  in,  405 

baths  in,  405-407,  467 

bedtime  in,  347 

bell-ringing  in,  272 

birds  in,  207,  437 

Bishop  of,  276 

bluejackets  of,  358,  393 

British  influence  in,  380,  389 

British  influence,  by  whom  repre- 
sented, 380,  381 

British  traders  in,  387 

Buddhism  in,  194;  entrance  of, 
218 

butterflies  in,  468 ;  superstition 
about,  436 

buying  in,  305 

cakes  in,  168,  183 

children  in,  176,  178,  179,  187,  205 

children  in,  precocity  of,  187,  188 

children  in,  where  to  be  seen,  179 

cholera  in,  471-478,  506 

cholera  in,  mortality  from,  477 

civilisation  in,  254,  390 

civil  lavs,  380 

climate  of,  402 

cloisonne*  work  in,  302,  303 

consular  jurisdiction  in,  378 

cook  in,  278 

cooks'  dress  in,  277 

coolies  in,  166 

country  girl  in,  164,  165 

court -dress  in,  217 

criminal  laws  in,  380 

cups  in,  168,  183 

dancers  in,  235,  236,  237,  238, 
262 

dancing  in,  309,  310 

dark  age  in, 316 

day  in,  437 

dinner  in,  230,  233,  259,  263 


Japan — 

discoverer  of,  159 
diseases  of,  405,  406,  407 
drawing-room  in,  271 
dressing  in,  349,  350 
eating  in,  229 
education  in,  342,  344 
Emperor  of,  see  Mikado,  502 
esteem  of  women  in,  296,  297 
etiquette   in,   237,    283,    351,   352, 

3°4 
Exhibition  in,  314,  316,  317,  318, 

3*9,  340,  39i 
exports  of,  314 
fancy-dress  dance  in,  286 
fan  in,  412 
farming  in,  398 
Festival  of  the  Dead  in,  428 
feudalism  in,  315,  316 
fish  in,  427 
fishermen  in,  166,  176 
fishing  in,  398 
florists  in,  182,  183 
flowers  in,  174,  409,  4*6,  436,  437 
folding  screen  in,  303,  304 
games  in,  285,  287,  347,  348 
gardener  in,  277 
girls'  dress  in,  261 
government  in,  387 
hair-dressing  in,  231 
hair  of  women  in,  165,  176 
head-dress  in,  280 
her  ( 'onstitution,  384 
her  fishing  craft,  158 
her  Hag,  158 

her  foreign  commerce,  387,  388 
her  foreign  merchants,  388 
her  negotiations,  382 
her  passports,  186,  389 
her  political  relationship,  370 
sailors  of,  160 
supreme  court  of,  3S6 
holy  books  in,  414 
home  in,  284,  346 
houses  in,  177,  273 


INDEX. 


525 


Japan — 

ice  beverage  in,  429 

inns  in,  188 

inns,  bedroom  in,  191 

inns,  beds  in,  191 

its  customs,  189,  190 

its  entertainment,  190,  191 

annals  of  invasion  of,  4S8,  489 

ivory-work  in,  299,  300 

joiner  in,  396 

judges  in,  389,  390 

lacquer-work  in,  298 

lady  of,  163,  164 

lady's  pillow  in,  280 

language  in,  183,  184,  284 

lanterns,  used  for  dead,  430,  431 

laughter  in,  205,  206 

law  of  election  in,  332,  333,  334, 

335 
laws  in,  377 
legends  of,  218,  219,  235,  329,  39S, 

415,  43°,  438 
life  in,  289,  353,  354 
love-song  of,  289 
manners  in  267 
mat-making  in,  293 
maturity  in,  441 
meals  in,  351,  352 
medicine  in,  354 
medicines  used  in,  403-408 
men's  dress  in,  176 
men-of-war  at,  158 
metropolis  of,  274 
mineral  springs  in,  406,  420,  423, 

424,  464,  470 
miller  in,  166 
morning  in,  351 
musumes  of,  177,  206 
mythology  of,  246 
new  Parliament  in,  306,  321,  490, 

493,  499 
oxen  in,  176 
painting  in,  396 
physician  in,  166,  354 
photography  in,  421 


Japan — 

pin  trade  in,  280 

poetry  in,  222,  224,  225,  285,  293, 
294 

poetry,  specimen  of,  222 

poets  of,  224 

policemen  in,  176,  394 

population  of,  313,  324 

porcelain  in,  395 

postmen  in,  176 

potters  in,  395 

presents  in,  285 

priests  of,  394 

reception  in,  365,  366 

religions  of,  195 

review  of  forces  in,  355?  3°7 

rising  in,  349 

roads  in,  210 

sculpture  in,  397 

shampooer  in,  166,  191,  401 

Shinto  priests  in,  195 

Shinto  temple  in,  195,  196,  207 

shops  in,  167,  274,  176 

shopping  in,  305 

shrimps  in,  168 

shutters  in,  192 

sin  water-cures  in,  438,  439 

sleeping  in,  418 

smoking  in,  1S3,  325 

soldiers  in,  176,  364;  their  uni- 
form, 364,  393,  394 

songs  of,  children's,  178,  179 

special  picture  in,  396,  397 

spirit  of  her  people,  174,  175,  177, 
184 

summer  in,  42S,  429 

tattooing  in,  412,  419 

tea  in,  259,  260 

tea-drinking  in,  170,  1S3,  259,  260 
265,  267,  268 

tea-making  in,  268,  269 

theatres  in,  2I9,  220,  221 

the  fox  in,  406 

the  (treat  National  Exhibition  in, 
391  ;  admission  to  it,  394 


526 


INDEX. 


Japax — 

the  supernatural,  how  regarded  in, 

43° 
the  tariff  question,  379,  380 
treaty  with  Great  Britain,  371 
trees  in,  193,  207,  23S,  307 
vases  of  cloisonne  in,  302 
vegetation  in,  192,  207,  273,  274 
vehicles  in,  165,  166 
vehicle-pullers  in,  165 
viands  in,  237,  347,  400 
women  in,  286,  297 
wood  of,  420 
wood-carving  in,  304  ;  where  may 

he  seen,  305 

hridge,  see  Kihombashi 

the  Empress  of,  her  appear- 

ence,  her   birth,  her  child,  her 

qualities,  486,  487 
Japanese,  the,  as  a  race,  308 
as  pedestrians,  463 
character  of,  285 
dress  of,  177 
feet  of,  210 
manners    of,    178,   204,   205,   218 

286 
speech  of,  223,  284  . 
temper  of,  379,  380,  389 
their  joiner-work,  395,  396 
their  love  of  flowers,  174,  194 
the  stability  of,  374 
the  turnery  of,  395,  396 
their  under-linen,  405 

Ka-ki,  fruit  of,  188 

Kamada,  its  plum-blossoms,  174 

Kama-Kura,  226  ;  its  Buddha  figure, 

225 ;    its    Buddhist   shrines,  325 ; 

its  Shinto  shrines,  225 
Kagura,  the,  dance,  201,  202 
Karuizawa,  summer  resort  in  Japan, 

469 
Ki-ku,  the  imperial  blossom,  187 
Kimono,  the,  163  ;  use  of  the,  166 
Kin  Kiu  Yan,  temple  of,  179;  wor- 


ship in,  180 ;  its  gods,  180,  181 ; 
gold  image  in,  179;  grounds 
within,  181  ;  pilgrims  to,  180 

Kioto,  see  Arashi-yama,  237 

Kiss  of  brotherhood,  269 

Knowledge,  lecture  on  modern,  245 

Koi,  the,  fish,  398,  399 ;  legend  of, 

399 
Kosei,  its  mineral  spring,  470 
Kuroda,  Count,  184 

Countess,  183  ;  dress   of,  1 83 

Kurosiwa,  the,  505  ;  its  speed,  505 
Kuruma,    the,    vehicle,    165,    166; 

value  of,  470 
Kuruma-yu,  see  Jinrikisha 
Kwannon   Sama,  goddess,  image   of, 

179 

Lanman,  Mr.  Charles  R,  103 
Lavino,  Mr.,  Consul  in  Singapore, 

5i5 
Leprohon,  Mrs.,  poetess,  49 
Liberty,  statue  of,  109 
Lighthall,  Mr.,  poet,  53 
Literature,  English,  254 
Liverpool  docks,  3 
Loch  Erin,  4 

Lockyer,  Norman,  on  colours,  256 
Londonderry,  wall   of,  5  ;   siege   of, 

4 ;     Macauley's    account    of    the 

siege,  5,  6 
Longfellow,  his    armchair,  95  ;    his 

daughter,  95  ;    his  poems,  95,  96 ; 

his  portrait,  96  ;  dwelling  of,  95 
Lubbock,  Sir   John,  250;    his   ant- 
house,  251  ;    his    researches,  250; 

on  bees,  250 
Lundy,  6 

Maciiar,  Agnes  Maude,  Canadian, 

poetess,  49 
Macleur,  Kate   Seymour,  Canadian, 

poetess,  49 
Magee,   Mr.,  purser  of  the  Belgic, 

154 


IXDEX. 


527 


Mahabhdrata,  the  passage  in,  433 
Makura,  the,  280 
Man,  his  growth,  253 
Manyoshiu,  poetic  work,  224 
Matter,  as  resolved  by  the  chemist, 

248 
Maumont,  sword  of,  6 
Mayflower,  the,  no 
M-Lachlan,  poet,  55 
Men.  America,  106 
Mikado,  the,  479 ;    as    a    monarch, 

486,    487 ;     description     of,    484 ; 

etiquette      attending,     4S5 ;      his 

birth,  486 ;    his   bow,  485  ;    dress 

of,  4S4,  501  ;    his   name,  486 ;   his 

troops,  495  ;   succession  to  throne 

of,  486 
Mikado  Nintoku,  legend  about,  329 
Mioken,  shrine  to,  175 
Mississippi,  the,  118 
Mongolian    voyagers,   ladies'   dress, 

155  ;  their  domino-playing,  151 
Monkey,  the,  of  Malay,  516 
Montreal,  20,  28-40  ;  its  elbow-room, 

29 ;  its   food   supply,  29 ;  its   gar- 
dens, 31  ;   Red   Indians   in,  29 ;    its 

telegraph  poles,  32 
Moore,  his  boat-song,  35 
Mosquitoes  in  Tokio,  418;  nets  for, 

418 
Moxa,  the,  treatment,  403 
Mugwort,  403,  404 
Mukojima,  the   cherry-tree   avenue, 

415 
Musumes,  288;  duties  of,  351 
Myanoshita  as  a  center  for  explora- 
tions, 422;  as  a  trlen,  420 ;  as  a 
village,  420 ;  its  hot  spring,  420 ; 
its  industry,  420 ;  its  surrounding 
mountains,  421  ;  sturdiness  of  its 
citizens,  421 

Nadx'S,  the,  its  chain  of  waters,  504 
505  ;  landscapes  and  seascapes  of, 
505 


Nagasaki,  506 

Xagoya,  359:  its  castle,  359;  its 
inhabitants,  359:  its  streets,  359 

Namikawa  of  Tokio,  302 

Nangasaque,  160 

Nebraska,  11S-121 

Negro,  the,  population  in  America, 
72,  73 

Nevada,  her  mines,  125 

New  Brunswick,  its  catholicity,  21 

New  Haven,  84 ;  its  commerce,  85  ; 
its  institutions,  84 ;  its  manufac- 
tures, 85 ;  its  situation,  85 ;  its 
trees,  84 

Newton,  his  teaching,  247 

Niagara,  41 

Nichiren,  St.,  temple  to,  174 

Nihombashi  as  a  road  centre,  415 

Nikko,  185,  186,  192;  its  height,  194; 
its  produce,  194;  its  temples  and 
tombs,  195,  196,  197,  198,  199,  207  ; 
country  round,  204 ;  mountains 
round  ;  197  ;  proverb  of,  194  ;  why 
famed,  197,  198,  199 

Ninsoku,  the  sturdiness  of,  421 

Nippon,  394;  holiday  at,  411  ;  the 
hills  of,  462 

Nobunaga  on  Christianity  in  Japan, 
372 

Norton,  Professor  Charles  E.,  103 

0  Fi'KU  San,  275  ;  on  the  Jour  des 

Morts,  433 
0  Jigoku,  see  (ireat  Hell 
Okuma,    Count,    184;     his    scheme, 

382  ;  the  sacrifice  of,  385 
Okura,  Mr.,  banquet  by,  261,  262 
( )maha,  118 
O  Take  San,  170,  202 

Pacific  Ocean,  the,  136,  142 
Parkes,   Sir    Harry,  in    Japan,  3S0, 

381  ;  reference  to,  386 
Pekin,  the  steamship,  512 
Penang,    516;    its    aspect,    516;    its 

waterfall,  510 


5^8 


INDEX. 


Penn,  cottage  of,  74 
Percy,  Lord,  92 
Persimmon,  see  Ka-ki 
Philadelphia,  73  ;  Girard  College  in, 

73,  74  ;  its  town-hall,  73 
Pickering,  Edward,  102 
Pigmy-worship,  the,  5°3j  5°4 
Plunkett,  Sir  Francis,  in  Japan,  381  ; 

reference  to,  387 
Prairie,  the,  119;  its  dogs,  120,  121  ; 

owls  in,  121 
Pullman  cars,  112 

Quebec,   her    catholicity,   21  ;  her 

founder,    24 ;    her    language,  23 ; 

her  site,  24;  her  streams,  21 ;  her 
title,  24 

Ranching,  122 

Ked  Indians,  29,  122,  124 

Keno,  124 

Pice,  469 

Kice,  cultivation  of,  193  ;  high  price 

of,  413 
Kice-god,  see  Inare 
Rice-wine,  400 
Richardson,  Mr.,  fate  of,  501 
Roaring  Meg,  the  gun,  6 
Robinson  Crusoe,  no 
Rothwell,  Annie,  Canadian  poetess, 

49 

Saigon,  Count,  262,  310,  312 
Sake,  267  ;  meaning  of,  210 
Salisbury,  Lord,   his   responsibility, 

3^7 
Salmon,  Admiral    Sir  Nowell,  V.C., 

5io 
Salt  Lake,  121,  123 
Samisen,  the,  170,  191 
Sambutsudo,  197 
Sandwich  Islands,  142 
Sanetomo,  lover  of  poetry,  225 
San    Francisco,   127,   128;  diseovery 
of  gold  at,  129;   its  birth,  129;  its 
cars,   130;   its  first  trade,  129;  its 


people,    130 ;     its    soil,    132;     its 

streets,    130;    opium-smoking    in, 

132,   133;     China    city    in,    131 ; 

apothecary    shops    in,    134,    135  ; 

food  in,  134;  habits  of  Chinese  in, 

131  ;  morality  in,  135  ;  population 

of,    136;    smoking    in,    132,    133; 

theatre  of,  135  ;  whalers,  142 
Sanskrit,  103,  107 
Satow,  Mr.,  C.  M.  G.,  on  Buddhism, 

196 
Science,  beckoning  onwards,  249 
Seikasha,  the,  266 
Sen-no-rikiu,  266,  270 
Seranus,  see  Harrison 
Seymour,  Captain,   of    the    Verona, 

503,  507 
Shelley,  MS.  of,  102 
Sherman,  General,  quotations  from, 

80-82 
Shiba,  196,  197 
Shichi-taki   Cascades,  its   mountain 

tea-house,  206,  209 
Shimonoseki,  Straits  of,  509 
Shinagawa,  175  ;  her  fishermen,  175 
Shinto,  meaning   of,  195  ;   the   reli- 

.gion   of  the   State,  195  ;   charms, 

199,  201 
Shiyoku,  tomb  of  the,  440 
Shogunites,  defeat  of,  312 
Shogun,  the,  Sanetomo,  his   love   of 

poetry,  225 
Shoguns,   the,    196;    crest    of,    197, 

200 ;    full  of,  491,  492 ;  tombs  of, 

197,  200 
Shoji,  the,  170 
Shuko,  266 
Shuyo    AVatanabe,    278 ;    his    dress, 

278  ;  his  duty,  278 
Signal  office,  the  meteorological,  70 
Silk,  451,  469 
Singapore,  514;  its  botanic  gardens, 

515  ;  its  population,  515 
Smith,  .Mr.  William  Wye,  poet,  51 
Smith,  Professor  Goldwin,  37 


INDEX. 


5-9 


Snow-sheds,  125 

Spectroscope,  the  power  of  the,  246 
Stadicona,  the  vilage  of,  24 
Statesmen,   American    and    Roman, 

104 
Stanley,  Lady,  29 
Steamships,  the  P.  and  <).,  519 
Steps,  hundred  and  one,  170 
St.  Lawrence,  the,  19,  26,  31 ;  Gulf 
of  the,  difficulties  of  navigating, 
1,  16;  its  icebergs,  16-18 
St.  Louis,  22 

Store,  largest  in  the  States,  75 
Straits  of  Malacca,  516 
Sugar-maple,  1 13 
Sui-Giyo,  sin  water-cure,  438 
Sumatra,  its  Golden  Mountain,  517  ; 

height  of,  517  ;  symmetry  of,  517 
Sumi,  the,  268 

Sun,  the,  compared  with  Sirins,  247 
Swinburne,  Mr.,  his  mistake,  507 
Sylvester,    Professor,    his   investiga- 
tions, 256 

Tea,  z6S 

Tea-leaf,  the,  265,  270 

Tea-pavilion,  265 

Tea-plant,  the,  265 

Thomas,  General,  81,  82 

Thomson,  Sir  William,  his  investi- 
gations, 256 

Tobacco,  169,  173 

Tokio,  173,  272,  275;  amusements 
in,  2S8 ;  baths  in,  406 ;  castle, 
175  ;  club, speech  at  the,  239-243  ; 
conflagrations  in,  336-342;  cover- 
ed with  volcanic  ash,  451  :  earth- 
quakes at,  214;  Exhibition  in, 
313;  housebreaking  in,  348;  new 
hotel  in,  319;  Parliament-house 
in,  1S4  ;  population  of,  175,250; 
size  of,  175;  streets  of,  176; 
temple.-  in,  196 

Toronto,  32;  atmosphere  of,  t,t,  . 
boat-song  of,  35;  fields,  34;  popu- 


lation of,  33 :  situation  of,  j6y 
38;  snake-fences  in,  ^^;  streets 
of)  37,  3s,  39!  wild  plants  in,  33; 
university,  38 

Toronto,  Lake  of,  36,  37 

Tori  Yoshida,  280,  2S2 

Treaty  revision,  its  international 
interest,  369,  370 

Truckee,  the,  124 

Tsuji,  Mr.,  remarks  of,  257 

Tsurumi,  its  rice-iields,  173;  reap- 
ing of  the  same,  173;  its  radish- 
fields,  173 

Tub,  the,  as  a  bath,  405 

Tyndall,  Professor,  his  experiments, 
249  ;  on  sounds,  256 

Typhoons,  breeding-place  of,  513; 
season  of,  513 

Urami,  the  waterfall,  209,  210 
Urashima,  21S  ;  his  burial-place,  219 
Utah  desert,  123 
Utsunomiya,  188;   inn    at,  189-192; 

the  pool,  210 
Uyeno  Park,  its  historical  memories, 

391,  392;  its  temple,  392 

Veroxa,  the,  5°3,  5°5,  5°7 
Voyage,    longest,   without     sighting 
land,  142,  143 

Waldox  Pond,  94,  95 

Walker,  Captain  of  the  Belgic,  145 
154,  155 

Walker,  Rev.  George,  his  valour,  5; 
statue  of,  5 

Wanamaker,  Mr.,  Postmaster-Gene- 
ral, 75 

Washington,  58;  its  memories  of 
Sumner,  Seward,  Lincoln,  (Gar- 
field, Jackson,  and  Farragut,  02 

Washington,  flic  White  House,  63-6S 

Washington,  dwelling  of,  95  ;  statue 
i't\  69,  74 

Webster,  Daniel,  68 


53° 


INDEX. 


Wellington,  Duke  of,  311 
Whitman,  Walt,  poet,  75,  76-78  ;  his 

dwelling,  77 
Whitney,  Dr.,  on  acu-puncture,  404 
Whittier,  Mr.,  poet,  89-91 
Winsor,  Mr.  Justin,  102 
Wolfe,   Quehec    conquered    by,    23, 

25 ;    his    death,    26 ;     his    rnonu- 


Yaktt-Shi,  temple  of,  437 

Yale  College,  84 

Yamagata,  Count,  308,  311 

Yeddo,  see  Tokio 

Yokohama,  162,  166;  clogs  worn  in, 

162;  her  roadways,  162 
Yomei  Mon,  the  gate,  201 
Yoshi-tsune,  Regent,  265 


ment,  26 

Job}fyAi   for 

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fSconng   1S   necessary   on   stiff   or  heavy  ^f" 

Rate   


'pli'K.    specialists 


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